Jeremy E. Maresh dies from injuries in 'a non-combat related incident'

A 2001 graduate of Jim Thorpe Area High School has died in Iraq in an apparent suicide.

Specialist Jeremy Maresh, 24, of Penn Forest Township died while serving as a military policeman, said Lt. Col. Chris Cleaver, of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in Ft. Indiantown Gap.

Maresh was a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard unit in Lehighton, the Battery A, first of 213th Air Defense Artillery.

Maresh was sent overseas on Sept. 11, 2006, and had been a Guardsman for more than six years. He re-enlisted for a second six-year term in January.

Maresh, who was not married, leaves behind an 18-month-old son, Shollenberger said.

In June, when the 213th Air Defense Artillery deployed, Maresh talked about going to Iraq for the first time.

"This is going to be hard, Maresh had said that day, "I have a fiancee and kids."

Still on that day, Maresh was optimistic about him and his comrades getting back home safely.

"Everybody is going to come back alive and in one piece," he had said.

From the Morning Call