One was so eager to become a Marine that he skipped his high school graduation ceremony to start boot camp. The other was down to his last 10 days in Iraq.
Lance Cpls. Michael L. Starr Jr., 21, of Edgemere in Baltimore County and Darrell J. Schumann, 25, of Hampton, Va., were two of the 30 Marines and one sailor who perished when their CH-53E "Super Stallion" helicopter crashed in a sandstorm Wednesday outside Rutbah, Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. It was the deadliest single incident for U.S. troops since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Lance Cpl. Michael L. Starr Jr., 21, planned a career in law enforcement.
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The cause of the accident is under investigation. Officials said that they are considering the sandstorm as a factor but that they have not ruled out mechanical failure, crew error or enemy fire.
Faculty members and administrators at Baltimore's Perry Hall High School said Starr's passion to become a Marine began long before he entered Parris Island Recruit Training Center in South Carolina.
"His goal from the very beginning was to join the Marine Corps," said Patrick Sokolski, coordinator of the School to Career program at Perry Hall. "He knew what he wanted to do with his life." Family members told WBAL in Baltimore that although he initially planned to be a career Marine, he'd decided on a law enforcement career when his tour ended.
Sokolski said Starr kept a grueling schedule as a senior. He left school early for his job at the Pretzel Pub in Baltimore County, then headed for the gym to work two hours to prepare for Parris Island.
Nancy Eckels, a teacher, said Starr had a passion to serve his country and was so eager to begin his military career that he skipped graduation. Alice Deshazo, an assistant principal, remembered him as "quite a student. He never caused any trouble."
Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, based in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, Starr was a veteran of last November's bloody urban firefights against insurgents in Fallujah. In an interview with the Marine Corps News, Starr described crossing a street under fire.
"I could hear and feel rounds whizzing by," he said. "All I was thinking about was to take cover once I got across. That was the biggest adrenaline rush I ever had in my life."
Schumann, a machine gunner also with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, was set to start his journey home in just 10 days, his older brother Richmon Schumann, 28, said yesterday. He'd been in Iraq since early October, after a July 2004 deployment. He was set to return to the United States in late March.
"They just had one more mission to do," said Schumann, a network engineer from Buford, Ga. "They just had to do some security for the election, and they were on their way to do that."
In letters home to his family, Schumann found humor in the day-to-day conditions of life in a war zone.
"Over three weeks without a shower, being crammed with a bunch of other dirty Marines," he wrote in one letter last month. "Sitting with a machine gun six hours a day."
Richmon Schumann remembered his younger brother yesterday as "sort of the free spirit of the family."
