N.C. Marine 'Wanted to Serve'
Lance Corporal, 20, Was Killed While on Patrol in Iraq
By Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 7, 2006; B03
 

The care packages from family were still en route to Iraq when enemy fire took the life of the intended recipient: Marine Lance Cpl. Kevin Adam Lucas.

The 20-year-old from Greensboro, N.C., was killed May 26 while conducting a security patrol in Anbar province, authorities said.

Family members, who learned the news three days before Memorial Day, gathered with other mourners yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery to remember a son, a fellow Marine and a friend.

"Adam at a very young age knew he wanted to serve his country," Lt. Ron Nordan, a Navy chaplain, told the dozens of people who assembled at graveside to honor Lucas -- known to family and friends as "Adam."

Many bowed their heads, wiping away tears, as a bugler played taps. Marines who were friends of Lucas's assembled behind the family and saluted as a seven-member rifle squad fired three volleys to honor the fallen Marine.

Also attending the service were more than 40 denim- and leather-clad members of the Patriot Guard Riders, motorcycle enthusiasts who attend burials of fallen service members to shield grieving families from the intrusion of antiwar protesters.

Although the solemnity of yesterday's service was not broken, protesters from a small, independent Kansas church, Westboro Baptist, stationed themselves outside the cemetery waving placards. In recent months, members of the congregation have stirred anger across the nation, picketing with inflammatory signs at funerals for troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lucas was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

In an interview last week with the Greensboro News-Record, Lucas's parents, Kevin and Sandra Lucas, recalled a proud Marine who was in Iraq to get a job done.

"I didn't want to lose my son," Kevin Lucas told the paper. "He felt strongly about what he was doing. I have to honor and support that."

According to news reports, many members of the family have served in the military. Lucas's family moved to Greensboro from Mississippi in 2002. While attending Northwest Guilford High School in Greensboro, Lucas joined the Navy Junior ROTC.

"He ate, breathed and slept the military," said David Lambert, who was Lucas's mechanical drafting teacher at Northwest Guilford and was interviewed by phone yesterday. "He was a great kid. He was genuine. There was no pretense about him."

Lucas enlisted in the Marines after graduation and was deployed in March for his first tour of Iraq. According to the News-Record, Lucas talked to his parents for the last time on Mother's Day. It was hot and the mosquitoes were bad, he told them, but he stood behind the work the Marines were doing there.

Lucas was due to return to the United States in the fall and planned to get married early next year, according to news reports. After his death, a Web page honoring Lucas was put up on the Northwest Guilford High Web site.

"You are the kind of young person that I want in my country," reads a tribute from Hawk Lindley, who was one of Lucas's ROTC instructors. "Memorial Day will be even sadder from now on. Time moves swiftly and soon I will be called for that last and most holy of quarters for muster. After I account to my God for my life I would like to see you. Please wait for me."