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LCpl. Brian E. Anderson, U.S.M.C (NCD)
Marine from Durham accidentally electrocuted in Iraq
SOUTHERN IRAQ -- Dawn was breaking Wednesday, and it was time for Charlie Company to move north from Nasiriyah.
That meant it was time for Lance Cpl. Brian E. Anderson, 26, of Durham, to bellow "Roll out!" just as he had every other time this unit of Marines had gotten the call to advance.
An hour later, Anderson, was dead, the company’s first fatality in the war with Iraq as well as Durham’s first confirmed casualty. He was electrocuted in an accident just outside town. Thursday night, after Anderson’s next of kin had been notified, the Department of Defense released his name.
Anderson’s fellow Marines from Camp Lejeune, remembered him as a kind and generous man who was among the first to throw water to Iraqi children when the company crossed the border not quite two weeks ago.
"I remember the first day he came to us, he was so excited to go," said 1st Sgt. Michael Sprague, 36, White Sulpher Springs, W.Va. "He was so much fun to be around, that kid. He always had a smile on his face."
He was known for his affection for dominoes — or "bones," as the men here call the game.
Anderson, an administrative clerk, had been assigned to the unit just before its deployment in mid-January. During the company’s eight days in Nasiriyah, Anderson often marveled that he, a clerk, was on the front lines of a war.
Charlie Company was involved in several firefights during its time in Nasiriyah, including a ferocious friendly fire incident. But its last days in the southern Iraqi town were relatively subdued. The night before he died, Anderson had said that the recent lull in combat was giving him too much time to think, and that he was becoming homesick.
Wednesday morning, as the convoy rumbled out of town following Anderson’s call, he took his position manning a .50-caliber machine gun atop one of the convoy’s seven-ton trucks. Not far out of Nasiriyah, he grabbed a low-hanging power line to push it over the gun and his head.
The wire was live, and Anderson was electrocuted. He lost consciousness immediately and died en route to a medical facility around 7 a.m. local time, or 11 p.m. Tuesday back home.
No further information was available at presstime.