Joshua L. Booth slain by sniper

The single black bar on his vest made the tall man with bright blue eyes stand out among his camouflaged charges.

A few weeks ago, he told his wife not to worry. "The insurgents aren't good shots," he said in a phone call.

At 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday, after just 36 days in Iraq, Marine Second Lieutenant Joshua L. Booth was leading his platoon on foot patrol in Haditha when he crossed one with deadly aim. A sniper fired one lethal shot that hit the 23-year-old father from Sturbridge in the head.

"I'm sure they could tell he was a leader," said Erica Booth, the spouse he left behind on Sept. 11 with their 14-month-old daughter, Grace, and an unborn son due in January. "He knew it was getting violent, but he didn't express any concern. He was really strong."

Born in Virginia Beach, Va., Booth moved to Massachusetts as a child and graduated in 2001 from St. John's High School in Shrewsbury, where he had grown to 6-foot-2 and developed a reputation as a fierce wrestler.

He had wanted to be a Marine from an early age, at least since meeting a family friend who had served in the Marines, his wife said. He even wore his hair "high and tight" in high school.

"If they ever made fun of him, that would have been the end of it," she said. "He was a hard-core Marine -- 100 percent. It was all he ever wanted to do."

Booth attended The Citadel military college in South Carolina, where in 2005 he graduated at the top of his class with a degree in criminal justice, became a nationally ranked pistol shooter, and earned his commission as a second lieutenant.

"He was a bit of an overachiever," she said.

He and his wife had met two years before at The Citadel, when she came to visit the school from Dighton. "It was two weeks before spring break," she said. "He came home, and the rest was history."

They married the month he graduated. He then spent several months in the infantry officers' course in Quantico, Va., before he and his family moved to the Marine base in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, where the couple went snorkeling and kayaking and napped with their daughter in a hammock.

"He was really proud of his platoon," she said. "He talked about the progress they were making," arresting insurgents and confiscating weapons.

When his service was up, he wanted to work as either a police officer or a border control agent, his wife said. The two talked about settling in Charleston. In addition to his wife and daughter, Lieutenant Booth leaves his parents, John E. and Debra L. of Sturbridge; a sister, Melissa L. DeVera of Fredericksburg, Va., and a large extended family.

He will be buried in Bedford, Va., next to relatives.

From the Boston Globe