Grenade claimed the life of 1st ID soldier

A Schweinfurt, Germany-based soldier with the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, died Sunday of wounds suffered in a grenade attack in Baghdad.

Pfc. Chad E. Marsh, of Wichita, Kan., came under attack while on patrol as the gunner in a Humvee, the Department of Defense said in a release Tuesday.

While Marsh’s unit was conducting a combat patrol, a grenade was thrown at his vehicle by an insurgent, his mother, Janet Marsh, told the Wichita Eagle newspaper. Shrapnel wounded him in the back of the neck and left arm and he died about an hour later, Janet Marsh said.

After becoming interested in the military as part of a Junior ROTC program, Marsh joined the Army while a student at Northwest High School in Wichita, according to The Associated Press.

“He was a good kid. He was a very good kid,” Janet Marsh was quoted as saying. “He had a lot of friends; he was a very outgoing person. It’s hard to describe him. He’s one of a kind.”

After completing his enlistment, Marsh planned on returning to Wichita to become a police officer, Janet Marsh told CBS television affiliate KWCH.

Chard Marsh will be buried in Coldwater, Kan., near his father who died when he was 5, the television station reported.

March is the 13th 1-26 soldier to die since the unit deployed in early August. Overall, the 2nd “Dagger” Brigade has suffered 21 fatalities. The brigade, in several locations throughout Iraq, primarily is stationed in and around Baghdad and Ramadi, two of the most violent areas in the country.

A memorial service for Marsh has not yet been scheduled, a spokesman for 1-26’s rear detachment said.