Marine Corps Corporal Jesse Lee Thiry, 23, Casco, Wisconsin, died on Monday, April 5, 2004 in Fallujah, Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was killed by hostile fire from enemy forces. Corporal Thiry was with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Camp Pendleton, California. Thiry died in Fallujah, where a mob attacked, killed, and mutilated four U.S. contractors just the week prior. 

    At the time of Thiry's death, 631 U.S. service members had been killed in the Iraq war. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Thiry had been in Iraq less than a month when he was killed. Thiry was the first Kewaunee County resident to be killed in the Iraq war. 

    Corporal Thiry was part of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force's mission of occupying Fallujah and Ramadi and other cities about 30 miles west of Baghdad. At the time it was one of the areas of Iraq with the most intense fighting during the U.S. military's then 11-month deployment in Iraq. The Journal Sentinel also mentioned that Corporal Thiry was a Marine weapons instructor in Quantico, Virginia. He volunteered to transfer to an assignment that would take him to Iraq just eight months before he was scheduled to leave the military. 

    Wisconsin 2003 Senate Joint Resolution 70 notes Jesse Thiry was born on March 2, 1981. The Resolution mentioned Thiry had also pulled duty in Japan

    Jesse Thiry is the fourth of eight children and a 2000 graduate of Luxemburg-Casco High School where he played football, wrestled, and ran track. He entered the Marine Corps shortly after graduation and had made plans to do so as early as his Junior year. 

    At the time of his death, Marine Corporal Jesse Thiry was survived by his father Randy, stepmother Susan; his mother Kathy Bornman; his fiancee Jamie Anderson; brothers Scott, Denise, Ben Brien, Don, and Travis; sisters Trisha, and Anna; paternal grandparents Goldie and Grace Thiry; nephews Anonio, Hayden, and Pryce; niece Hailey Brien; and, aunts and uncles Ernie and Mary Ellen Fameree, James and Diane Thiry, and Michael and Patrica Sloan. 

Information for this short biography about Marine Corps Corporal Jesse Lee Thiry was pieced together from the following sources: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Saying farewell to Marine who 'didn't have to go,'" April 15, 2004; The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Marines lived parallel lives, died not far apart in Iraq," April 7, 2004; Wisconsin 2003 Assembly Joint Resolution 70, "Relating to: the life and military service of Marine Corporal Jesse Thiry; Wisconsin Department of Veteran Affairs "Fallen Heroes Page"; and, CNN.com "War Casualties Page."

Note: This "Wisconsin Military Casualties Afghanistan Iraq Compilation" Daily Dadio blog Category is under construction. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Wisconsin War Casualties Page for a list of names noted by date of death.  ( If readers know of other military service persons with Wisconsin connections that are not on the Web site comprehensive list of fatal casualties, or notice errors, please email Bob Keith at keithrg13@cooldadiomedia.com ).