Marine Lance Cpl. James B. Stack

Died November 10, 2010 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

---

20, of Arlington Heights, Ill.; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; died Nov. 10 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, while conducting combat operations.

* * * * *

Illinois school names gym after fallen Marine

The Associated Press

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. — A school in suburban Chicago has named its gymnasium after a Marine who was killed in action in Afghanistan.

The Daily Herald reports that Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights named its gym after Lance Cpl. James Bray Stack. Stack spent time at the gym as a member of the Arlington Heights International Air Gun Club.

He was home-schooled but was a member of the school’s soccer and track teams. Stack won a gold medal at the Junior Olympics in 2008 for the air pistol.

Stack, 20, was killed Nov. 10 while on patrol in Helmand province. It was his first tour of duty since enlisting in the Marine Corps last year. He was assigned to Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Stack was survived by a wife and daughter.

---

Experienced gunman was anxious to return home

The Associated Press

James B. Stack had been deployed to Afghanistan for only a month but had years of marksmanship under his belt that made him a confident rifleman. He was a regular hunter, nationally ranked competitive shooter and seasoned gunman who won a gold medal at the Junior Olympics in 2008 for the air pistol.

“I can shoot better than they can, don’t worry about me, I’m coming home,” he wrote in one of his last letters to his family, according to The Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill.

Stack, 20, of Arlington Heights was killed Nov. 10 while on patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan. It was his first tour of duty since enlisting in the Marines last year. He was assigned to Camp Pendleton, Calif.

A devout Christian, Stack was homeschooled but was a standout athlete at Christian Liberty Academy, where he played soccer, ran track and met his wife, Katie.

They married in 2009 and have a 1-year-old daughter, Mikayla.

Katie Stack said she’d received nearly two dozen letters from her husband, saying “basically that he loves us and can’t wait to come home to us,” she told the newspaper. “It helps that he’s a hero. He’s mine and Mikayla’s hero forever.”