Robert Secher slain by sniper

Robert Secher always wanted to be a soldier. His family remembers the military as his childhood dream.

They're just not sure from where the desire came.

"He always liked firemen, soldiers and Marines," his father, Dr. H. Pierre Secher, said Thursday.

The younger Secher fulfilled his dream, going to Marine Corps boot camp at 17 and reaching the rank of captain -- a calling that eventually took him to Iraq.

Last Sunday, the Germantown resident died there.

Capt. Robert Michael Secher, 33, was struck by a sniper's bullet during a battle with insurgents in Iraq's Anbar province, the family said. He was part of a 10-member team of Marines assigned to train an Iraqi army battalion.

Funeral services for Capt. Secher are scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday at Temple Israel sanctuary on East Massey Road, followed by burial with full military honors at West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery on Forest Hill-Irene. The captain had requested the local burial rather than Arlington National Cemetery.

"That was his way of saying that he was a Tennessee boy, and always will be, and not from Washington," the elder Secher said.

At least nine people with ties to the Memphis area have died in the Iraq conflict since 2003.

Capt. Secher referred to his career in the military "as a 'calling' much like some are called to the rabbinate or priesthood," his sister, Josie Ballin, said.

"He always wanted to be a Marine," the elder Secher said. "They were an elite outfit. He bought into the whole mystique of the Marines, and he never lost that."

The family was still dealing with the tragedy Thursday, welcoming friends to Dr. Secher's Germantown home. Plants and food were delivered. Secher's colleagues from his days as a political science professor and department chairman at the University of Memphis sat around the living room listening to their friend talk about his son; how the captain was an avid reader of books on the Roman Empire, the Roman army and the Civil War. He also loved the outdoors.

The family learned of Capt. Secher's death Sunday after attending a gathering at Temple Israel. As they were leaving, Ballin wanted to go by the Secher home because "I had a bad feeling. "I needed to know there wasn't a car waiting out front," she said.

There was. With two Marines. And the fear of every family who has someone serving in the military came crashing in on the family.

"I even used to imagine it," the father said of such a devastating visit. "Because I said to myself: 'If I think of it, it won't happen.' "

Capt. Secher attended Christian Brothers High before graduating from Marion Military Institute in Marion, Ala. He had been in Iraq since January, but his career had taken him to posts around the world. He once was assigned to a detail at the White House during the terms of presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

When the father asked the son how he qualified for such a duty, the Marine replied: "Well, they give a psychology test, and if you pass, and it shows that you won't shoot the president while you are in his presence, you get in."

The captain disliked some of his assignments because there wasn't enough action. The elder Secher said his son was frank about the military and country needing to take a more aggressive approach in Iraq, be more disciplined in their training and tougher on how they fought the war. He repeated those frustrations last month when he was home on a two-week leave.

"He was happy there, despite everything," Dr. Secher said. "And he said: 'A Marine bitches.' "

In spite of those feelings and what the family described as a reserved, monosyllabic attitude, he had earned the reputation as "the smiling soldier." In just about every picture sent back from Iraq, even the ones where everyone is supposed to be stern, Capt. Secher is smiling.

"Of course I cried, and I'll cry again," Dr. Secher said. "But I feel wonderful talking about him. I really do."

Capt. Secher is survived by his parents, Elke A. Morris and Pierre and Lucy Secher of Germantown; four sisters, Margaret Matthes of Birmingham, Mich., Josie Ballin of Germantown, Paula Salky of Steamboat Springs, Colo., and Sandy Pepper of Huntsville, Ala.; and one brother, Barney Pepper of Germantown.

From the Commercial Appeal