"He wanted to support his country"
Friends recall Marine Jason Little, killed Saturday in Iraq
Nick Schirripa
The Enquirer
 

The flag flew at half-staff Wednesday against a gray and cloudy sky just outside the halls of Climax-Scotts Junior and Senior High School.

That's where only a few years ago, Jason Little attended classes, talked with friends and chose a future in the military.

Lance Cpl. Jason T. Little, a 2003 Climax-Scotts graduate, was one of five Marines killed Saturday in Iraq under different circumstances.

According to a release from the U.S. Department of Defense, Little, 20, died when his tank was attacked with an improvised explosive device near Ferris, Iraq.

He was assigned to 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Little is the second serviceman from the Battle Creek area killed while serving in Iraq.

Marine Lance Cpl. Craig Watson, a 2003 Union City High School graduate, was killed Dec. 1 by a roadside bomb in Fallujah.

Open the gold-foil cover of the Climax-Scotts 2003 yearbook and flip through the photos of the senior class and you'll find a picture of a relaxed Jason Little, laid back and casual.

Within the serene face of the young man, who teachers and friends described as shy, are two dark and intense eyes.

"I remember mostly a quiet young man," said Ron Ehlers, Climax-Scotts High School math teacher. "He really had a calming effect on people and he was easy to talk to, but you could tell he had a passion inside him."

Ehlers said Little, a personable and respectful student, was a senior in his probability and statistics class.

Ehlers and Judi Kingsbury, guidance counselor for the junior and senior high schools, said Little had an interest in computers that helped him come out of his shell and led him to enlist in the Marine Corps.

"I think he saw it as an avenue to get training in computers," Kingsbury said. "That was something I saw that changed in him from seventh to 12th grade — his maturity and confidence."

Little was a student cadet in the guidance office his junior year, and Kingsbury said he was trustworthy.

"Being a mom, I knew if I wasn't there, he would be doing what he was supposed to be doing," she said.

Attempts to reach Little's family on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Lisa Rose, 22, of Bellevue said she and Little had been dating since summer and she found out about his death Sunday from Samantha Lambert, a mutual friend.

"Sam and I just broke down together on the phone and cried for about 10 minutes," Rose said.

Since then, Rose said she has spent a lot of time crying, reading letters and looking at things Little sent her from Iraq, like a T-shirt that says, "Half of my heart is in Iraq."

Rose said she and Little met when they worked together at the Meijer store on B Drive North in Battle Creek.

"I was a cashier, he was a bagger and he was in love with me," she said.

After going their separate ways, Rose said he and Little were reintroduced by a mutual friend and began dating last summer.

"I remember, it was about two weeks after we were reintroduced, it was kind of late at night. We were just talking, and I said, 'You know what, I think I just fell in love with you,'" she said. "I loved him to death. You could never ask for a better guy."

Rose said Little loved Jeep Wranglers, off-roading and being outdoors.

"He loved the beach," she said. "He loved country music, but he wasn't much of a dancer."

Rose said she visited Little at Camp Lejeune the weekend before he left for Iraq on Sept. 17 and talked with him on the phone before he left for the mission that would be his last.

"He was always nervous, and he was scared," she said. "You could hear it in his voice. But he always said he would come back."

Rose and Lambert said Little had a great sense of humor.

Lambert, 20, of Battle Creek, said she also worked with Little at Meijer.

"He was my best friend," she said. "We pushed carts together and we would get in trouble for hanging out when we were supposed to be working."

Little was a great listener, Lambert said, and was kind to everybody.

"He was a wonderful person," she said. "He would give his heart to anybody."

Lambert said Little was very patriotic and told her about enlisting in the Marines.

"He was very gung-ho about it," she said. "He wanted to support his country."

The mood this week among Climax-Scotts students has been somber, said Geoffrey Balkam, superintendent of Climax-Scotts Community Schools.

"I think things have been relatively quiet," he said. "There doesn't seem to be much activity."

Balkam said he found out about Little's death when his mother called the school Monday to let officials know Jason's younger brother, Derek Little, a sophomore at Climax-Scotts High School, would not be in class.

"It puts a real cover over the entire student body," he said. "Life is so precious. One day, you see somebody walking down the street, and the next day they're gone."

The flag at the school has flown at half-staff for every Michigan troop killed in the Iraq or Afghanistan military conflicts, Balkam said.

"It flies for Jason as well," he said. "The young man is a true American hero.

"I wished I'd known Jason was even in the military. I would have liked to have had a conversation with him before he left. I would have told him I'm proud of him, and to be extremely careful."

For Balkam, Little's death brings back memories of losing former classmates in the Vietnam War.

"This seems to rekindle some of those fires," he said. "When it hits home, it's a real cold wake-up call that wars do affect communities all over."