Marine Lance Cpl. Adam J. Crumpler 19, of Charleston, W.Va.; assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed June 18 by small-arms fire while conducting combat operations against enemy forces during Operation Spear in Karabilah, Iraq.
Kanawha Marine killed in Iraq
Lifelong ambition was to follow in footsteps
By Rick Steelhammer
Staff writer
Anxious to follow in the military footsteps of the grandfather who raised him, Adam J. Crumpler of Campbells Creek signed up for the Marine Corps even before graduating from Riverside High School.
“He always said he was going to go into the Marines,” said his sister, Brittnay. “He looked up to Grandpop being a Marine in World War II.”
On Saturday, while taking part in combat operations against insurgents along the Iraq-Syria border, Lance Cpl. Adam Crumpler came under small-arms fire and was fatally wounded.
Crumpler was one of about 1,000 Marines from Regimental Combat Team 2 of the 2nd Marine Division taking part in Operation Spear, a joint operation with Iraqi security forces and soldiers to clamp down on insurgent activity in the vicinity of the Iraqi border town of Karabilah.
“Their job was to prevent insurgents from Syria crossing the border into Iraq, and setting up strongholds in Iraqi cities,” said 2nd Lt. Barry Edwards, public affairs officer for the 2nd Marine Division.
On the day the 19-year-old rifleman was killed, Marines from his battalion rescued four Iraqi men from an insurgent torture chamber in the basement of a building where they had been beaten, blindfolded and cuffed to a wall during three weeks of captivity, according to the Marine Corps News.
Manuals, books and DVDs dealing with hostage-taking, beheadings and other insurgency tactics were found in the building and a car bomb factory was found in an adjacent structure, according to the Marine Corps News.
“He wrote in a letter that I got yesterday that he only had a few more missions to live through” before he could come home, said Brittnay Crumpler, a law student at West Virginia University. Her brother, a 2003 graduate of Riverside High, planned to remain in the Marines, she said.
“He was a very good boy and was so full of life and loved what he was doing so much. It’s hard to believe he had to lose his life for it.”
Crumpler said she and her brother were raised by their grandparents, Hubert Robert Johnson and Emma Stone Johnson. Hubert Robert Johnson, a Marine World War II combat veteran, and a retired coal miner, died last December, while Adam was a private first class stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
“He was a good person and just a really great guy,” said Kristin Perry, one of Crumpler’s many longtime friends in the Tad-Campbells Creek area.
“He was so well liked and fun to be around, but he was also the kind of guy you would want to have around at a time like this.”
Kanawha Marine killed in Iraq
Lifelong ambition was to follow in footsteps
By Rick Steelhammer
Staff writer
Anxious to follow in the military footsteps of the grandfather who raised him, Adam J. Crumpler of Campbells Creek signed up for the Marine Corps even before graduating from Riverside High School.
“He always said he was going to go into the Marines,” said his sister, Brittnay. “He looked up to Grandpop being a Marine in World War II.”
On Saturday, while taking part in combat operations against insurgents along the Iraq-Syria border, Lance Cpl. Adam Crumpler came under small-arms fire and was fatally wounded.
Crumpler was one of about 1,000 Marines from Regimental Combat Team 2 of the 2nd Marine Division taking part in Operation Spear, a joint operation with Iraqi security forces and soldiers to clamp down on insurgent activity in the vicinity of the Iraqi border town of Karabilah.
“Their job was to prevent insurgents from Syria crossing the border into Iraq, and setting up strongholds in Iraqi cities,” said 2nd Lt. Barry Edwards, public affairs officer for the 2nd Marine Division.
On the day the 19-year-old rifleman was killed, Marines from his battalion rescued four Iraqi men from an insurgent torture chamber in the basement of a building where they had been beaten, blindfolded and cuffed to a wall during three weeks of captivity, according to the Marine Corps News.
Manuals, books and DVDs dealing with hostage-taking, beheadings and other insurgency tactics were found in the building and a car bomb factory was found in an adjacent structure, according to the Marine Corps News.
“He wrote in a letter that I got yesterday that he only had a few more missions to live through” before he could come home, said Brittnay Crumpler, a law student at West Virginia University. Her brother, a 2003 graduate of Riverside High, planned to remain in the Marines, she said.
“He was a very good boy and was so full of life and loved what he was doing so much. It’s hard to believe he had to lose his life for it.”
Crumpler said she and her brother were raised by their grandparents, Hubert Robert Johnson and Emma Stone Johnson. Hubert Robert Johnson, a Marine World War II combat veteran, and a retired coal miner, died last December, while Adam was a private first class stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
“He was a good person and just a really great guy,” said Kristin Perry, one of Crumpler’s many longtime friends in the Tad-Campbells Creek area.
“He was so well liked and fun to be around, but he was also the kind of guy you would want to have around at a time like this.”
Marine Lance Cpl. Adam J. Crumpler 19, of Charleston, W.Va.; assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed June 18 by small-arms fire while conducting combat operations against enemy forces during Operation Spear in Karabilah, Iraq.
Kanawha Marine killed in Iraq
Lifelong ambition was to follow in footsteps
By Rick Steelhammer
Staff writer
Anxious to follow in the military footsteps of the grandfather who raised him, Adam J. Crumpler of Campbells Creek signed up for the Marine Corps even before graduating from Riverside High School.
“He always said he was going to go into the Marines,” said his sister, Brittnay. “He looked up to Grandpop being a Marine in World War II.”
On Saturday, while taking part in combat operations against insurgents along the Iraq-Syria border, Lance Cpl. Adam Crumpler came under small-arms fire and was fatally wounded.
Crumpler was one of about 1,000 Marines from Regimental Combat Team 2 of the 2nd Marine Division taking part in Operation Spear, a joint operation with Iraqi security forces and soldiers to clamp down on insurgent activity in the vicinity of the Iraqi border town of Karabilah.
“Their job was to prevent insurgents from Syria crossing the border into Iraq, and setting up strongholds in Iraqi cities,” said 2nd Lt. Barry Edwards, public affairs officer for the 2nd Marine Division.
On the day the 19-year-old rifleman was killed, Marines from his battalion rescued four Iraqi men from an insurgent torture chamber in the basement of a building where they had been beaten, blindfolded and cuffed to a wall during three weeks of captivity, according to the Marine Corps News.
Manuals, books and DVDs dealing with hostage-taking, beheadings and other insurgency tactics were found in the building and a car bomb factory was found in an adjacent structure, according to the Marine Corps News.
“He wrote in a letter that I got yesterday that he only had a few more missions to live through” before he could come home, said Brittnay Crumpler, a law student at West Virginia University. Her brother, a 2003 graduate of Riverside High, planned to remain in the Marines, she said.
“He was a very good boy and was so full of life and loved what he was doing so much. It’s hard to believe he had to lose his life for it.”
Crumpler said she and her brother were raised by their grandparents, Hubert Robert Johnson and Emma Stone Johnson. Hubert Robert Johnson, a Marine World War II combat veteran, and a retired coal miner, died last December, while Adam was a private first class stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
“He was a good person and just a really great guy,” said Kristin Perry, one of Crumpler’s many longtime friends in the Tad-Campbells Creek area.
“He was so well liked and fun to be around, but he was also the kind of guy you would want to have around at a time like this.”
Kanawha Marine killed in Iraq
Lifelong ambition was to follow in footsteps
By Rick Steelhammer
Staff writer
Anxious to follow in the military footsteps of the grandfather who raised him, Adam J. Crumpler of Campbells Creek signed up for the Marine Corps even before graduating from Riverside High School.
“He always said he was going to go into the Marines,” said his sister, Brittnay. “He looked up to Grandpop being a Marine in World War II.”
On Saturday, while taking part in combat operations against insurgents along the Iraq-Syria border, Lance Cpl. Adam Crumpler came under small-arms fire and was fatally wounded.
Crumpler was one of about 1,000 Marines from Regimental Combat Team 2 of the 2nd Marine Division taking part in Operation Spear, a joint operation with Iraqi security forces and soldiers to clamp down on insurgent activity in the vicinity of the Iraqi border town of Karabilah.
“Their job was to prevent insurgents from Syria crossing the border into Iraq, and setting up strongholds in Iraqi cities,” said 2nd Lt. Barry Edwards, public affairs officer for the 2nd Marine Division.
On the day the 19-year-old rifleman was killed, Marines from his battalion rescued four Iraqi men from an insurgent torture chamber in the basement of a building where they had been beaten, blindfolded and cuffed to a wall during three weeks of captivity, according to the Marine Corps News.
Manuals, books and DVDs dealing with hostage-taking, beheadings and other insurgency tactics were found in the building and a car bomb factory was found in an adjacent structure, according to the Marine Corps News.
“He wrote in a letter that I got yesterday that he only had a few more missions to live through” before he could come home, said Brittnay Crumpler, a law student at West Virginia University. Her brother, a 2003 graduate of Riverside High, planned to remain in the Marines, she said.
“He was a very good boy and was so full of life and loved what he was doing so much. It’s hard to believe he had to lose his life for it.”
Crumpler said she and her brother were raised by their grandparents, Hubert Robert Johnson and Emma Stone Johnson. Hubert Robert Johnson, a Marine World War II combat veteran, and a retired coal miner, died last December, while Adam was a private first class stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
“He was a good person and just a really great guy,” said Kristin Perry, one of Crumpler’s many longtime friends in the Tad-Campbells Creek area.
“He was so well liked and fun to be around, but he was also the kind of guy you would want to have around at a time like this.”
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