Charles O. Sare killed in combat

HEMET, Calif. - A Navy medic killed in Iraq is being remembered for his humor and love for off-roading.

Corpsman Charles Otto Sare, 23, who arrived in Iraq last month, was killed Monday in the Anbar province when an improvised explosive device blew up the vehicle he was riding in.

Nicknamed Otter, Sare joined the Navy in 2004 and he was assigned to a Marine Corps division whose members called him Devil Doc, his father Charles "Ed" Sare said. The young corpsman wanted to become a paramedic.

Sare, assigned to 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center out of Twentynine Palms, had talked about the dangers of war with his father.

"He was 6-foot, 3-inches tall. I would always tell him, 'Find the biggest guy in the platoon and stay behind him or learn how to duck,'" his father said.

The younger Sare was known as a comic, calling himself Willy Wonka on his MySpace site. A photo of him with a beak made of potato chips hanging out of his mouth is just one example of the lengths he would go to make others smile.

Sare is the fourth Hemet High School graduate killed in the Iraq war. Another former Hemet High School student, Army Pfc. Kenny F. Stanton Jr., 20, died when an improvised explosive device blew up near his vehicle in Baghdad on Oct. 13.

Other Hemet alumni who died in Iraq since the war's start were Marine Cpl. Michael Estrella, 20, in June, and Army Specialist Jason Chappell, 22, in January 2004.

"It's an incredible and unfortunate set of circumstances. I don't know there is anything it can be attributed to except plain old bad luck," Hemet Unified School District superintendent Phil Pendley said.

In a short biography Sare wrote on his MySpace Internet site, he listed his mother and father as his heroes, along with "everyone else who makes a difference in another person's life and paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country."

Sare's mother Vikki Carver of Nibley, Utah, said by telephone Wednesday: "He was our hero."

From the San Jose Mercury News