Iraq War Casualty Was Living His Dream

Two weeks before a fatal Humvee accident in Iraq, a northeast Mississippi Marine wrote to his hometown paper about his pride in helping topple Saddam Hussein.

Sgt. Jonathan W. Lambert, 28, said in the e-mail that his section crossed into Iraq on March 22 and spent the next three weeks advancing to Baghdad.

"It was a hard battle with many Marines wounded or killed in action. But this is what we had to do to protect your way of life," Lambert wrote in the letter published this week in The Banner-Independent of Boone-ville.

Lambert grew up near Booneville. He had been living in Oceanside, Calif., with his wife, Betty, and their daughter, Kinsey Jade, who turned 2 on Monday.

Lambert's family is planning his funeral for this weekend, but arrangements were incomplete Thursday at McMillan Funeral Home in Booneville.

"It's been a rough two weeks on us, and we've got another tough weekend to go through," his mother, Becky Lambert, said Wednesday from her home in the New Site community.

She said her son will be buried with full military honors at the Little Brown Cemetery in New Site — within walking distance of the house where he grew up.

"He's 28, but he was my first born and he was the love of my life," Becky Lambert said.

Jonathan Lambert died Sunday at Landstuhl Hospital in Germany from injuries received in a Humvee accident May 26 in southern Iraq.

Family members were at the hospital when he died.

"We're devastated. Everybody has been real helpful — we have had so much wonderful help; and it's just God's blessing that his wife and daughter were here visiting for five weeks," Becky Lambert said.

Jonathan Lambert worked in wireless data communications as a member of the 1st Marine Division.

"I am hard and thorough with my Marines to make sure the job is done right," he wrote to the Booneville newspaper. "Many other Marines depend on us for their survival in combat. I will not let them down."

The division was traveling by convoy from Baghdad to Kuwait to prepare to return to their home base in Camp Pendleton, Calif., when the accident occurred.

Lambert, who suffered an open head injury, was taken to an Army hospital in Kuwait City, where he underwent surgery. He was later transferred to Germany.

In the letter to the weekly newspaper, Lambert thanked his family and the families of fellow Marines for their support. He had been in the military more than eight years.

"It has always been a dream for me to be in the Marines," Lambert wrote. "I love the challenge. I continuously work and sweat for it."

He wrote that Marines were fighting to protect freedom.

"I'm not writing to you to toot the horns for the Marine Corps, but many people look at the big picture and forget what it took to make it," he wrote.

"It takes people dedicated to protect this nation. I have respect for all services, law enforcement and especially the firemen. We know that this is more than a job, we do it for our children, grandchildren, friends and family. To make sure that their future will be protected as ours is today," he wrote.

He e-mailed the newspaper photos of himself in front of a Russian-made tank and in front of one of the many Saddam murals in Iraq.

Survivors include his wife Betty; daughter Kinsey Jade; parents Becky and Johnny Lambert of New Site, a sister, a niece and grandparents.