Marine, 21, Is Killed in Iraq

Mother Says 'Class Clown' Tried to Bring Happiness

Jonathan Yale was close to his mother, a single parent who gave birth to him when she was only 17. And he was the kind of guy who liked to make people happy, she said.

"He was the class clown, even when he wasn't at school," his mother, Rebecca Yale, said yesterday. "But he also didn't mind sitting home with his momma to watch a chick flick with a box of Kleenex between us. He was the best boy you could ask for."

Yale, a 21-year-old corporal from Burkeville, Va., was one of two Marines who died Tuesday in Iraq of wounds suffered in combat operations in Anbar province, the Department of Defense said yesterday.

Yale, who was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, was scheduled to come home soon, his mother said.

Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter, 19, of Sag Harbor, N.Y., also died Tuesday, the Defense Department said.

Yale grew up in rural Meherrin, one of those "teeny tiny little Virginia towns where if you sneeze, you miss it," Rebecca Yale said.

When he was little, Yale loved to hang out with his granddad "in the bush and the thicket," his grandfather, William Sydnor Sr., said. "I used to call him 'Wild Man.' No matter how much he would get scratched up in the woods, he always wanted to go again next time . . . and he was only 5 or 6 then."

Sydnor said his son, Yale's father, lived with the boy off and on while he was growing up.

Yale became an "awesome skateboarder" and "one of the top paintball players" in the area, according to his mother. She said he was setting up a Web site for a paintball team he had founded.

Yale and his little sister, Tammy, had signed up to play in a paintball tournament in August, said Rebecca Yale, 38. Because he had missed Tammy's 16th birthday while serving in Iraq, he made plans to take her to Busch Gardens for a special celebration when he got home.

"They had lots of plans," his mother said. "John loved his family and his friends."

Rebecca Yale said her son, who left for Iraq on Oct. 31, was due home in less than a month.