2nd Marine Division

Christopher Custer, the 21-year-old Marine lance corporal who was killed in a car crash last weekend in Pennsylvania, had recently returned from Iraq, where he served as a combat engineer, according to information released yesterday by the Marine Corps. Lt. Clark Carpenter, a public information officer at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where Custer was stationed, said the Bel Air resident was on three weeks leave, which is typical for Marines returning from duty in Iraq. Carpenter said that Custer had received a half-dozen awards since joining the Marines in November 2000, including the Navy and Marine Corps achievement medal.

WASHINGTON --The second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq has concluded that some senior Marine officers were negligent in failing to investigate more aggressively the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians by Marines in Haditha in November, two Defense Department officials said yesterday. The officer, Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, concluded that senior officers failed to follow up on inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the initial reporting of the deaths - including those of 10 women and children and an elderly man in a wheelchair - that should have raised questions.

Cooksville resident Rosemary Clark will demonstrate the art of quilting with step-by-step instructions at 7 p.m. Jan. 13 at the Glenwood branch library on Route 97. Clark, who lives across the street, runs a home-based quilting business called RC Dream Quilts. She teaches in her studio and sells her quilts twice a year, in May and September, "right on the front lawn." She has made 12 Harry Potter quilts - one with a three-dimensional cloak with Harry's initials monogrammed on the lining.

HUSAYBAH, Iraq -- Thousands of American and Iraqi troops laid siege yesterday to this town near the Syrian border in one of the largest military assaults since American-led forces stormed the guerrilla stronghold of Fallujah last year, Marine Corps officials said. The sweep, aimed at shutting down the flow of foreign fighters along the Euphrates River, began early yesterday as 2,500 American troops and 1,000 Iraqi soldiers, all led by the Marines, cordoned off roads around Husaybah before rolling into town in armored vehicles and marching in on foot.

George R. Montour, son of George and Evelyn Montour of here, returned from the Persian Gulf March 28.The petty officer 1st class was deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy in September.Montour lives with his wife, Susan, and their son, Christopher, near the Patuxent Naval Base in St. Mary's County.He is stationed at the Norfolk Naval Base in Norfolk, Va.MARINES COME HOMEFive county Marine reservists were greeted with sunshine and warm hugs as they returned from the Persian Gulf to their Baltimore headquarters Tuesday afternoon.

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia -- The thunderous sound of bombs exploding in the distance gave Marine Gunnery Sgt. Albert Tasker some reason to doubt that the war and the carnage would be ending soon.The 35-year-old Glen Burnie man had literally jumped for joy when he first heard reports of an Iraqi offer to withdraw from Kuwait. "The best news I've had since I've been here," he exclaimed.But as the day wore on, the news got worse, allied bombs kept falling and so did the hopes of hundreds of thousands of GIs who have been girding for a ferocious ground war that could start at a moment's notice.

"Pops, when I come home, Natty Bohs and crabs?" Lance Cpl. Eugene C. "Gene" Mills III asked his father, Gene Mills II, during an impromptu phone call early last week, about a month before the younger man was due to return home to Laurel from Afghanistan. "One more mission, Pops, and I'll be home," the son told his father. "Love you, Pops. " Those were the last words his father - a retired Prince George's County police officer known as "Big Gene" - would ever hear from "Little Gene," 21, a High Road Academy graduate and Marine stationed in Helmand province, on his second deployment to the country.

Killed in Iraq As of yesterday, 1,440 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations. Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,302 U.S. soldiers have died. Latest identifications Marine Cpl. Jonathan S. Beatty, 22, Ottawa, Ill.; died Jan. 27 from hostile action in Babil province; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force; Camp Lejeune, N.C. Killed Jan. 24 northeast of Baghdad when their Bradley fighting vehicle overturned; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry, 1st Infantry Division; Vilseck, Germany: Army Sgt. Michael C. Carlson, 22, St. Paul, Minn.

Marine Cpl. Robert A. Lane, son of Lionel and Barbara Lane of Fallston, was promoted to his present rank while serving with 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C.He is a 1987 graduate of North Harford High School.THOMPSON ON CARRIERNavy Airman Daniel H. Thompson, son of Debra and Daniel Thompson Jr. of Joppatowne, is in the Persian Gulf aboard the aircraft carrierUSS Dwight D. Eisenhower and is midway through a six-month deployment.In November, Thompson participated in exercise "Eager Mace," a 10-day, joint amphibious landing exercise in Kuwait.