Marine Pfc. Sean Horn

Died June 19, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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19, of Orange, Calif.; assigned to Combat Service Support Group 11, 1st Force Service Support Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; died June 19 of a non-combat-related cause at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq.

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Calif. Marine dies in Iraq non-combat accident

Associated Press

IRVINE, Calif. — A Marine from Orange County who was only a week from his 20th birthday has died in a non-combat incident in Iraq.

Pfc. Sean Horn died Saturday while serving at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq. The military said he died in a “non-hostile incident” but did not provide details. He would have turned 20 on Sunday.

Horn’s sister Melissa, 21, told the Orange County Register that he was found dead on Saturday from a single shot in the head in a bunker at the camp, about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad.

“It’s the worst thing in the world that could possibly happen to a family,” she said Tuesday.

She said Horn did not return for a 4 p.m. roll call at the base, and his body was found a short time later.

During a final phone conversation with her brother in May, she repeatedly told her brother how much she loved him, to which an embarrassed Horn replied: “Come on, Mel, the fellas are behind me listening. I understand you love me.”

“We’re still trying to figure out what happened and it’s just too soon for me to talk about it,” his father, Steven, said at the family home in Irvine.

Horn was born in the Los Angeles suburb of Lakewood and grew up in Irvine. He joined the Marine Corps in June 2003. “He loved the Marines. He had a great career ahead of him,” the father said.

Horn was an engineer equipment operator for the Combat Service Support Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Horn’s family had recently sent him a package with birthday gifts, including candy, coveralls and a silver cross. The family was planning to move to Oceanside to be nearer to Horn when he returned from active duty.

Horn was scheduled to be buried at Forest Lawn in Cypress next to his grandfather, also a Marine. A date for a funeral service had not been set.