Timothy Brown remembered

Marine Lance Cpl. Timothy Wayne Brown was serving less than two months in Iraq when he wrote home to Foothill Farms, where his mother is dying of liver cancer.

"I know times might get tough for you, but you have to stay strong," he told Susan C. Brown. "If not for yourself, then do it for me. I need you in my life."

His mother received the neatly printed letter Tuesday, the same day her 21-year-old son was killed in Anbar province, Marine Corps officials said. His family said he died after a Humvee he was driving hit a roadside bomb.

Brown joined the Marine Corps in September 2005, finished basic training in Southern California, and was assigned in March to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force in Hawaii. He deployed to Iraq in September.

"He left here a boy and went to Hawaii as man," Susan Brown said Thursday. "But he always called me 'Mommy,' and he was always 'Timmy' to me."

Family and friends recalled Brown as fun-loving free spirit who was tough and headstrong on the outside but warm and gentle inside.

Besides his parents and two siblings, he left behind many close friends from Foothill High School, where he wrestled for four years, played varsity soccer and graduated in 2003.

He was a former jock who collected guns and knives, hunted deer with his father, spent hours working on cars in the driveway of the family's home and mercilessly teased his younger sister. He often went out shirtless, proudly displaying the muscles that Marine basic training packed on his 5-foot-10 frame.

"He was cocky," said Marine Sgt. Mark Carillo, a wrestling teammate at Foothill High School who has completed two tours in Iraq. "He was proud to be a Marine."

Brown was also a dutiful son who hid his enlistment plans from worried parents, said his father, Rick Brown. He cared at home for his mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year. He rebuilt a '65 Ford Mustang with his brother, made time to talk and laugh with his sister and loved his grandmother's homemade spaetzle, a German noodle dish.

"His favorite thing to do was making fun of me," said his sister, Sabrina Brown. "But when I needed someone to listen, he was always there."

He was also "crazy in love" with his high school sweetheart and fiancée, Ashley M. Milami, his family said. He was 16 and she was 15 when they met at Foothill High School and exchanged promise rings. He was set for a two-week leave next spring so they could marry May 26 in Roseville.

"He told me he joined the Marines, just a week before he left," Milami recalled. "I cried for a week. But all my friends are in the military, and he had wanted to go since he was 18. I thought it would be OK."

Brown was born in 1985, the middle child in a family raised by a concrete finisher and a school librarian.

He was an excellent athlete, wrestling in junior high school before following his brother, Keith Brown, onto the varsity wrestling team at Foothill High School. He was a tough competitor who placed at many varsity and league tournaments, said his former coach, Bill Lum.

"He was a consummate team player who did everything with integrity and honor," Lum said. "That's probably why he ended up going into the Marines."

Brown considered other career options after high school. He completed auto technician school -- with honors -- and took a test to become a Sacramento County sheriff's deputy. But he always came back to joining the military, as several of his wrestling teammates did after high school.

"He knew training would be tough, but he wanted to go," Carillo said. "He wanted to serve his country."

From the Sacramento Bee

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