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- The People Behind The Sacrifice
Marine Lance Cpl. Hector Ramos
Died January 26, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
20, of Aurora, Ill.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Hawaii; killed Jan. 26 when the CH-53E helicopter in which he was riding crashed near Rutbah, Iraq. Twenty-nine Marines and one sailor also were killed.
Aurora Marine among those killed in Iraq helicopter crash
Associated Press
CHICAGO — A 20-year-old suburban Chicago man was among the Marines killed when a helicopter crashed during sandstorms in Iraq, killing 31 troops on the deadliest day for U.S. forces since the Iraq war began, officials said Thursday.
Hector Ramos of Aurora was known as an energetic high school student who was heavily involved in the arts and drama, said East Aurora School District spokesman Clayton Muhammad.
The Ramos family learned of his death Wednesday, Muhammad said.
His mother, Nancy Ramos, said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks inspired Ramos to join the Marines.
“When 9-11 happened, the first day he went to go sign up. He came home from school, and he told me, ‘I signed up. I need to do this. I always wanted to,”’ his mother, Nancy Ramos, told WLS-TV Thursday in Chicago. “I am the proud mother of a Marine.”
According to the Ramos family, Hector wrote home earlier this month that his tour of duty changed him and that he would never take his life for granted.
The CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter was carrying personnel from the 1st Marine Division when it went down about 1:20 a.m. Wednesday near the town of Rutbah, about 220 miles west of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.
A search and rescue team was at the site investigating what caused the crash.
Army Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, said the helicopter was on a mission in support of the Jan. 31 election.
According to an Accuweather map of Iraq, sandstorms were in the western region of Iraq near the Jordanian border where the crash took place.
Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, said 30 Marines and one U.S. sailor were killed in the crash — the most American service members to die in a single incident in Iraq.
The U.S. military has lost at least 33 helicopters since the start of the war, including at least 20 brought down by hostile fire, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.