LCpl. Richard Clifton

Broadkill Beach Marine, 19, killed in Iraq

The News Journal

From the time Richard Chad Clifton took his first steps, he dreamed of becoming a soldier.

He lived and died fulfilling that dream. Lance Cpl. Clifton, 19, of Broadkill Beach, was one of two Marines killed in separate incidents Wednesday in Iraq.

Clifton was stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. He completed basic training at Parris Island, S.C., in October 2003 and was sent to Iraq in September. He was scheduled to come home next month.

He is the sixth soldier from Delaware to be killed in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This will affect an entire community," Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said Friday. "I have known the Clifton family almost my entire life and this is a real tragedy. ... We'll all be there to support and pray for them."

Flags at Cape Henlopen High School, where Clifton graduated in 2003, were flown at half-staff Friday.

The Defense Department released few details about Clifton's death, saying he was killed "while conducting security and stability operations in North Babil Province" south of Baghdad.

The Pentagon had not released Clifton's name Friday, but word of his death spread quickly through the close-knit coastal Sussex community where he was raised.

Chad Clifton, as he was known to his family and friends, grew up north of Broadkill Beach. His father, Richard, is a nationally renowned wildlife artist. His mother, Terri, is a stay-at-home mom with a gift for writing.

"Chad made an impression on everyone he met," Terri Clifton said Friday. "He was a gentleman and a scholar. The world has no clue what it lost."

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., said he remembers meeting Clifton at a forum he hosted for students interested in attending the military service academies.

"I urged him to consider the Naval Academy," Carper said.

Clifton had participated in the National Youth Leadership Conference and visited the Marine base at Quantico, Va., his mother recalled.

That, combined with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, galvanized his plan to become a Marine, she said.

"He said in no uncertain terms he loved what he was doing," said longtime friend Aaron Moore, of Ellendale. Moore and Clifton served in the Cape Henlopen High School ROTC and were on the rifle team. Clifton also played lacrosse.

After Clifton left for Iraq in September, he continued to communicate with his friends by e-mail and through Internet blogs, Moore said.

The news of his death was devastating for his friends.

"He was supposed to be coming home next month," Moore said. "You see it on TV, but it's a whole other thing" when it happens to someone you know.

As high school students, Moore and Clifton saw themselves helping others and were influenced by the terrorist attacks, Moore said.

Moore's dream is to become a New York City firefighter. Clifton's dream was a career in the military.

"For the last few years of high school, that's really all he talked about," Moore said.

Clifton could have done anything, his mother said. He was a gifted student and had read the complete works of Charles Dickens by the fourth grade, she said.

In a Web posting in April 2001, Clifton described himself:

"I am a high school student at Cape Henlopen, a beginning novelist (isn't everyone??) with a bit of talent and too much time on my hands. I enjoy writing, politics, religious debate (try me Mr. Pope ...) paintball and heavy metal. Welcome to my world."

In another posting, he wrote that he adored his father and considered him the best artist in the area.

He and his younger brother Ryan grew up in a home where art, music, politics and religion were everyday topics, Terri Clifton said.

"I think he would have been a writer," she said.

Clifton continued to write while in Iraq, according to Web postings. In a January posting, he included a poem entitled Postcard from the War:

wish you could be here

wish you could see this

empire of sandbags

a million identical boot prints marring dirty sand

littered with remnants

of our lives

and chain smoked cigarettes

wish you could be here

"Okay so it's not great," he wrote. "But it's my first attempt at capturing a chunk of this place for future referance [sic] when I'm old and forgetful. I just like the image of the million boot prints this occupation leaves behind."

Carper said Clifton initially served as a communications specialist coordinating air strikes. His assignment changed in recent weeks but Carper said he wasn't sure what Clifton's new duties were.

Carper said Clifton's death is a loss to the family and something that has shaken the community.

"Chad was 19. He's three years older than our oldest son," Carper said. "And I know, I know how I would feel if something like that happened to one of our boys."

Terri Clifton said she last spoke to her son Monday.

"I got an e-mail from him and he called home," she said. "He was very tired. He had only had about three hours of sleep in three days."

She said not a day went by that she did not fear for his safety because he was assigned to the unstable area around Fallujah.

She wasn't enthusiastic about her son's decision to join the military. But "as hard as it was for us, we had to let him walk his own path."