Marine Corps

Raymond J. Garber, a retired retail salesman who served in the Marine Corps during World War II, died Sept. 7 of multiple organ failure at Harbor Hospital. The Glen Burnie resident was 87. The son of a baker and a homemaker, Raymond Joseph Garber was born and raised in Catonsville. He was a 1942 graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School in Irvington. After high school, he joined the Marine Corps and served with the 1st Marine Division. He fought in the Guadalcanal, Okinawa and Northern China campaigns, and was in China when the war ended.

Touch a screen at the new Fort McHenry Visitor and Education Center and the sounds of "The Star- Spangled Banner," eight different versions, spring forth. Some feature singers who belt out the words, "the land of the free. " Others are instrumentals, some jazzy, some martial, and two more are waiting in the wings. To make it to Fort McHenry, these performances had to be serious and timely. "We ruled out any goofy versions," said Fort Superintendent Gay Vietzke, "or ones where the artists were simply seeking publicity.

When Chris Vaile was severely wounded by an improvised explosive device in January 2008, the Marine Corps sergeant refused to leave his squad in Iraq. It was his final tour. The wound permanently left shrapnel in his foot and earned him a Purple Heart, but he would not leave. "He was fearless and full of adventure," Cara Vaile said of her son. Chris Jarrod Vaile, 25, a Randallstown native, was killed Sunday by an IED in Afghanistan, where he was working for a private security firm.

HENRY MAYOR BOURGEOIS, 88 Member of famed Black Sheep Squadron One of the last surviving aviators from World War II's famed Black Sheep Squadron has died in Covington, La. Henry Mayor "Hank" Bourgeois was 88. Bourgeois joined the Marine Corps in 1940, served during World War II and the Korean War and retired from the military after 20 years. But the duty for which he was best remembered was with the Marine Fighting Squadron 214. Serving under Lt. Col. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, the unit became known as the Black Sheep Squadron in the South Pacific.

Experts say the U.S. military's recent recruitment success is due to the recession - young men and women, lacking job opportunities during a period of relatively high unemployment, have volunteered for duty in record numbers despite the nation being at war. Hard to argue with the experts; "the economy," up or down, is a factor in everything, starting with the career choices young Americans get to make. Throw in pay raises and signing bonuses, and you can see why the Army and Marine Corps were able to reach recruitment goals and then some - nearly 170,000 fresh faces signed on the dotted line during the last federal budget year.

The choice was obvious. Who should lead the Navy football team onto the field inside a packed Ohio Stadium last Saturday afternoon, proudly holding the American flag aloft? Senior Cameron Marshall, of course. The special teams player and third-string defensive end. The 26-year-old former Marine sergeant. "It's an immense honor," Marshall said. "Holding that flag - it feels like you're holding the country in your hands." Marshall does not say that lightly. He spent four years in the Marine Corps and served two tours in Iraq before attending the Naval Academy.

He was a cross-country star in high school, an incurable optimist and a young man who wanted to be a Marine so badly that he signed up when he was 16, two years before they could take him in. Now Michael W. Heede of Edgewood, a combat engineer on his third tour of duty overseas, has become one of the latest casualties in the increasingly deadly U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. "I'm now a member of a club I never thought I'd join - mothers of young people killed in the war," his mother, Gloria Crothers, said Wednesday.

Midshipman William Selby surveyed the options for graduates of the Naval Academy and passed over ship officer, aircraft pilot and submariner for arguably the most dangerous selection of all: a career in the Marine Corps. "An easy choice," the Frederick native said. "I wanted to be where the action is." Selby, 21, is one of 273 first classmen, or "firsties," who will receive commissions in the Marine Corps this year. It is the highest number in recent Naval Academy history, accounting for more than 25 percent of the graduating class of just over 1,000.

Frank Joseph Hamilton, retired founder of Profit Programming Inc. and a former bank director, died Feb. 19 of prostate cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Cedarcroft resident was 76. Mr. Hamilton was born and raised in Chicago. He graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep in 1951, and earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1954 from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. He studied law for a year at Marquette University before enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1956, where he served as a member of the ceremonial drill team in Washington, and as an economics and accounting instructor at the Marine Corps Institute.