Jeramy Ailes
On his last call home in late October, Jeramy
Ailes predicted his Marine unit would be pushing soon into
Fallujah.
He also told his father he was looking forward
to coming home so he could fish and go snowboarding. He never
made it back.
"It was after the city was 100 percent
contained," said his father, Joel Ailes. "He survived 12 or 14
days of that on the front lines. They were backtracking coming
back. His group was basically ambushed by somebody who was
faking they were dead. The guy just jumped up and shot him."
Ailes was killed less than two weeks after his
22nd birthday.
A 2001 high school graduate, Jeramy Ailes
enlisted with several of his friends after the Sept. 11 attacks.
He served two tours in Iraq, the first from
February to May 2003 in Nasiriyah. His father said his son was
moved by the plight of Iraqi families and said he wrote home
asking for soccer balls to hand out to children.
"He didn't go in to kill people. He went in to
help people," Joel Ailes said. "His first tour of duty he gave
away almost $300 to families. You can feed a family for $10 a
month in Nasiriyah."
He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine
Regiment, 1st Marine Division of the 1st Marine Expeditionary
Force at Camp Pendleton.
After his first tour, Jeramy Ailes described
conditions for the Marines and soldiers in Iraq to a reporter
for the hometown Gilroy Dispatch. He talked about awaking one
night to find a hand-sized camel spider on his chest and about
the misery of drinking hot water from canteens on hot days.
He knew his unit would be returning but said
his attitude was to simply "suck it up."
"We need to get our boys home as soon as we
can," Joel Ailes said. "But they have a job to do, and we need
to let them get it done."
He also is survived by his mother, Lana, and
sisters Janay, 23, Jenny, 14, and Leah, 12.
