Jeromy D. West slain by sniper

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, made a lot of Americans angry. They made Jeromy West, a sweet-natured 14-year-old, angry enough to go to war.

The boy, formerly of Chula Vista, joined the Marines at age 17. By 19, he was guarding polling centers in Afghanistan. At 20, he was battling insurgents in Iraq.

On Thursday, an exhausted West called his mother, Lisa West-Klopf, from Anbar province during a lull in combat duty.

“He was tired and his feet were all messed up,” said his mother, 41, who lives in Aguanga, a town of about 6,000 people close to the Riverside-San Diego county line. Her family moved there when West was in the eighth grade.

“He had not had a shower in days and days and was fed pie and orange soda for Thanksgiving. But he was real excited because he had received a Taco Bell nacho kit I had sent him in the mail,” she said. “I don't know how he did it, but he called everyone on Thanksgiving – his brother and girlfriend and us. We are very glad that he was able to call.”

On Saturday, a sniper's bullet struck West while he stood guard on a roof in western Iraq, killing him almost instantly. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

The news rattled students and teachers yesterday at Hamilton High School in Anza, where West graduated in 2004.

“We are a small, tight-knit, very rural community. A football game on a Saturday is the only game in town. When this kind of thing happens, it really hits a small community. Chances are you either knew him or knew of him or knew his family,” said school principal Jim Allured.

Today, the U.S. flag on campus will be lowered to half-staff in honor of West, who played football, baseball and wrestled for the Hamilton Bobcats.

“He was also a member of the student government and was very well liked by fellow students and staff. He was a hard worker, dependable, great sense of humor and a good student. From talking to people who knew him, he was just a neat kid,” Allured said.

The principal described West's senior photo as “happy, but one of a person on a mission.”

That mission started early and always included the military, West-Klopf said.

West wanted to be an “Army man” even before he played football in a Chula Vista Pop Warner league in the mid-1990s, his mother said. The attacks of Sept. 11 simply galvanized a nascent patriotism.

“That made him mad, and he never forgot. He wanted to fight the terrorists over there to keep us safe here. He didn't want anyone else to have to do it,” she said.

Days after graduating from Hamilton High, he left for boot camp in San Diego. He was deployed to the Middle East soon afterward.

During his first tour in Afghanistan, “he guarded the ballot boxes and felt he was a part of history,” West-Klopf said.

Mother and son sat down before West shipped out for his second combat tour – this time in Iraq.

“I told him that if something happened, that I wanted him to go to a national cemetery like his grandfather,” she said. “But he did not want that.”

Now, the plan is to cremate West and keep the ashes. His family is thinking about holding a memorial service at the football stadium where West once starred as a center and linebacker.

“He was the sweetest, funniest kid and so many people loved him. . . . I would tell him that I missed his face and he would take a picture of his face and send it to me. He did that just before he shipped out to Iraq,” his mother said.

“It's the little things like that I'm going to miss the most. Like him kissing me on my cheek,” she said. “I am going to miss him every day for the rest of my life.”

From the San Diego Tribune