Army Scout Never Ran From Danger

Sgt. 1st Class John W. Marshall, a career soldier on the verge of retirement, chose instead to enlist one last time because he felt he had a job to do in the Middle East.

The 50-year-old sergeant, who grew up Los Angeles and later helped run a family business here, was killed Tuesday in an ambush in Baghdad, his relatives said Saturday. Marshall had been serving as a reconnaissance scout to secure safe passage for U.S. troops as they entered the city.

According to the Department of Defense, he was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade launched by Iraqi troops lying in wait.

“He knew it was dangerous. He didn’t run from anything,” his wife, Denise, said by phone Saturday from the couple’s home in Hinesville, Ga.

Marshall was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment in Ft. Stewart, Ga. Just before his unit was sent to the Middle East last fall, Marshall’s wife learned she needed eye surgery, and the couple talked over whether he should request a monthlong delay.

“He said he had prepared these guys and he had to go when they go. He said, ‘I need to be there,’ ” Denise Marshall recalled. “So we agreed he should go. He was a scout to the end.”

With 30 years of service, Marshall was eligible to leave the service with full retirement benefits and was intending to leave the Army last year. But with military action in Iraq looming, he decided to reenlist.

“He expected to come out of it and retire,” said his father, Joseph Marshall of Sacramento, “but he was committed to military service. Anything they told him to do, he would do.”

The soldier had a keen interest in rebuilding and programming computers, and talked of opening a computer repair store. While stationed in California during the 1980s, he helped his father run a hosiery distribution company, his wife of 14 years said.

Though known as a dedicated soldier, Marshall was quiet and reserved. Born in St. Louis, he moved with the family to Los Angeles at age 3. As a youngster, one of nine children who lived for a time in the South Los Angeles area on 62nd Street and later on 108th Street, he was a self-taught mechanic who made motor scooters powered by lawnmower engines.

Marshall enlisted in the Army in 1972 after graduating from Washington High School and began a career that he fell in love with.

“He wasn’t there to pass the time; he was there to do a job,” said his mother, Odessa Marshall.

That dedication was illustrated in a January e-mail to his family from Kuwait: “I know that everyone back home wants to know how I feel about what we are about to do,” he wrote. “It’s really not an issue with me. I am not a politician or policy maker, just an old soldier. I can’t afford the luxury of being distracted by the politics, social issues or administration’s rationale.”

Marshall was also a family man who doted on his two sons and daughter, ages 12, 13 and 14.

“He was disappointed that he didn’t get to say goodbye to us,” his wife said. “The day he left, he didn’t know [his unit was] going. He called from the base, Ft. Stewart, and said they were flying out in 15 minutes.”

After that, there was little opportunity to communicate. “If he was near a PX, he would pick up a card and send it to the kids. He got to talk to us by phone only once, for four minutes.”

Marshall had no qualms about going into combat.

“I cannot have any doubt about the righteousness of this mission,” he wrote in the January e-mail. “Any doubt or hesitation on my part could get someone killed. Maybe one day soon, we’ll sit down over a cup of coffee and I’ll be able to talk and answer your questions. But for right now, I am focused on doing what has to be done to ensure all my men return home safely.”