John Edward Hale killed by roadside bomb

SHREVEPORT (AP) — A Shreveport Marine, with barely a year of service under his belt, has been killed in Iraq.

Lance Cpl. John Edward Hale, who’d been in the war-torn country for three months, died Friday when an improvised explosive device detonated near his patrol in the Anbar Province, his family said Monday.

Hale, a 2005 graduate of Huntington High School and co-captain of the Raiders’ football team, served with the 2/8th Marines, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, family members said.

“John was so many things, it’s hard to put into words,” said Paula Moreno, his sister who’s also a Shreveport police detective. “He had friends everywhere and was active in his church.”

As with many people, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, galvanized her brother, Moreno said. “He was very moved when 9-11 happened, and that was when he made up his mind to join the Marines.”

While the military has not yet formally announced his death, on Monday it reported that three Marines died Friday in Anbar Province as part of Regimental Combat Team 5.

Funeral arrangements are pending the return of his remains to the United States, which could take two weeks, the family said. In addition to his sister, he is survived by his parents, Philip and Carol Hale, and three other siblings — Sonia Langford, Justin Martin and Phillip Davenport.

“John was the all-American kid,” Huntington High principal Jerry Davis said. “He was an excellent student in the classroom as well as a leader on the football field. He exhibited leadership qualities long before his senior year. He was a young man that any dad would be proud to have as a son.”

Danita Bryant, school secretary and bowling/soccer coach, remembers Hale having a perpetual smile on his face and a thirst to serve. He came to the school once in full dress uniform to recruit, “but he never wanted to recruit. ... He wanted to be where the action was,” she said.

Josh Bato played with Hale on the football team. Bato was a guard, Hale the center.

“He was the best kind of guy, the kind that would give you the shirt off his back,” said Bato, Hale’s best friend. “The Marines, that’s all he wanted to do ever since he was a freshman. And he said the reason he was going was for his family and his friends, the people that he loved.”

Julia Adkins, who taught Hale in American history and advanced-placement art history, said his pursuit of knowledge and excellence went way beyond the confines of the school and Shreveport.

“He was just curious about everything,” said Adkins, who remembers hiking with Hale and other members of the Bayou Chapter of Ozark Society. She said he used the long treks along the Ouachita Trail to prepare himself for service overseas.

She said Hale was a man ahead of his peers. “John was always a lot more mature than the other students his age. Another teacher told me ’When John was a sophomore, he was about 30 years old.’ That was his maturity level.”

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