A Marine captain from Owings Mills was killed Tuesday while serving as a communications officer in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said yesterday.
Capt. Jesse Melton III, 29, was working with a team helping to train members of the Afghan National Army when a roadside bomb exploded, killing him, another Marine officer, a member of the U.S. Navy and an Afghani interpreter, said his mother, Janice Chance.
"He was a man of honor and a servant leader," she said last night as their family's Owings Mills home filled with friends and relatives. "He knew there were missions to do and work to do, and for the greater good, he was a Marine all the way."
After graduating in 1996 from Randallstown High School, where he played lacrosse and baseball, Captain Melton attended Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., where he studied communications.
But after his freshman year, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve and attended boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., his family said.
"It literally changed his life," said his younger sister, Jenine Melton, a captain in the U.S. Army who has served two tours of duty in Iraq and is stationed at Fort Knox, Ky. "He used to be very messy - the way, most of the time, boys' rooms aren't so neat. But when I went to see him in Parris Island, you could bounce a quarter off his bed.
"And he was proud. He felt a sense of duty to his country, duty to his family, and he wanted to do something to make America proud, to give something back to a country that has given us so much."
At the end of basic training, his drill sergeant recommended him for Officer Candidate School, his sister said. Captain Melton completed that training while also finishing his communications degree at Messiah College.
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant June 4, 2000, his mother said. He served two tours in Okinawa, Japan, and a tour in Iraq. He was promoted to captain before deploying to Iraq.
When Captain Melton learned he would be going to Afghanistan, his family was far more concerned for his safety than he was.
"Do you want me to get you out of there?" his mother recalled offering. "I'll do anything I can, even calling the commandant if I have to."
Yesterday, she recalled her son's response: "He said, 'Don't you dare. And if anything happens to me, don't you dare blame President Bush. Don't you blame the military. This is my decision. I feel God has led me to stay.'"
In March, he left for Afghanistan. At the time of his death Tuesday, Captain Melton was supporting combat operations in Parwan province. He was assigned to the Headquarters Battery of the 12th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, based out of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, according to the Department of Defense.
"Even though he was a communications officer, he did a lot of other things," Mrs. Chance said. "He went on patrols and convoys, he worked the gun. When you're over there, you have to do a lot of things."
Funeral arrangements had not been completed last night.
In addition to his mother and sister, survivors include his stepfather, Charlton Chance of Owings Mills; a brother, Joshua Melton of Owings Mills; two stepsisters, Christine Chance of Reston, Va., and Laura Chance of Owings Mills; his grandmother, Ethel Matthews of Baltimore; as well as several aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his father.
