Corporal Evan James

Corporal of Marines

Corporal Evan Tyler James was enlisted beside me in 1st platoon, Charlie Company, 6th ESB, 4th FSSB. Evan was the same age as me, shared common interests, and was in college just like I was. I had learned that he was from a town called LaHarp IL, and had attended LaHarp High School where he was involved in sports like basketball and football. James was now attending Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and had joined the reserves in order to help pay his way through college. Evan was very fit and was studying Kinesiology at SIUE to pursue a career in personal training. In his spare time, Evan did things like triathlons which consisted of running, biking and swimming.

I'm not sure why this memory sticks out so much in my mind, maybe its because it was the last one I had with Evan, but being in a desert there isn't much to do when you have a little bit of down time. Most of us had CD's that we brought with us to listen to, too get some sense of "home" or simply to try and forget where you are for a bit. Eventually you grow tire of listening to the same stuff over and over, so you go and thumb through your buddy's collection. This last memory of Evan was he came over to thumb through my stash and found my Stone Temple Pilots CD. STP was, and still is one of my favorite bands, and it was exciting to share that with someone else. To this day I still find myself thinking about Evan and that moment when I hear songs by STP.

Not long after this, on our first deployment, was when we packed up and got ready to move across the border into Iraq. As I stated in the deployment one section, I was separated from my platoon and assigned to an Explosive Ordinance Disposal squad during the cross over mission. The rest of my platoon, including Evan, was behind us in the convoy that EOD was mine sweeping to protect. Once the path was clear for the convoy to move through, it kept going and left us behind to finish securing areas for the bulk fuel company to set up their pumping stations. The convoy proceeded to set up a camp called Camp Viper, and the water purification station that accompanied.

At the water purification site at Camp Viper, there was a large canal separating one side from another. The canal was the water source that the reverse osmosis purification pumps got the water from so it was essential for all of us that we have a secure site to have clean drinking water. In order to ensure it was secure, they had to know what was on the other side of the canal that was not in plain sight. A team was assembled to swim across the canal in full gear to assess the situation. Being that Cpl James was used to doing triathlons and a strong swimmer, he volunteered, along with a few others. Once they were ready, they began to cross the canal, not knowing anything about it. About half way through, another Marine started to struggle and went under the water. After he wasn't seen for a few seconds Evan began to swim in that direction to help. Somehow, Evan also began to struggle, and also went under. Neither one of them came back up, and the rest of the Marines weren't sure if they swam down stream, or where they went exactly. Some believe the murky water was full of thick silt, and perhaps while diving down to make a swim attempt, the two of them somehow got stuck in this silt and couldn't get out.

All of this happened in a little less than a day, since I had departed from my platoon, to help out EOD. Roughly 12 hours after the convoy reached Camp Viper, and a couple hours after this canal incident went down, was when I arrived at Camp Viper. I could not believe what I was hearing when the others told me what was going on. A naval dive team was assembled to search the canal at this point, and both bodies were found the next morning.

We had a memorial service on the canal a few days later to say goodbye to both Cpl James, and Sgt Korthaus. These two Marines are thougth to have been the very first two casualties of this War. During this memorial service, the Chaplain said a few words, and pointed up to the stars. He dedicated two stars in a well known constellation for us to always be able to look up and see them, at any time. I find myself looking up at those stars and talking to these to Marines from time to time. I miss you both! May you REST IN PEACE!