Gunnery Sgt. Shawn A. Lane, of Corning, died in Anbar province in western Iraq. He was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

His mother, Coralee Lane, told The (Corning, N.Y.) Leader that Lane had begun wearing his father’s Air Force hat as a child and had decided by the time he was 8 years old that he wanted to be a soldier.

He played high school football and baseball. His father, John Lane, said Shawn Lane studied electronics at BOCES, where he received top honors. Before graduating in June 1989, he looked into the branches of service, and the Marines were the quickest to return his calls.

He left in October for basic training at Paris Island, S.C. A year later, he began radio communications school at Twentynine Palms, Calif. He moved to Camp Pendleton, then shipped out to Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm in 1991. He was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, from 1992 to 1993.

Lane’s father said the young Marine graduated Marine Security Guard school, a training ground for FBI and CIA workers, with a score of 92.3, while more than half the 274 people who enrolled dropped out.

Shawn Lane shook hands with President George Bush while guarding the American Consulate in Hong Kong in 1993, and was honored for guarding the American Embassy in Bogota, Columbia. He also served in Bahrain for four months in 2002.

He spent 15 months in Iraq, beginning in February 2003, and returned there on Feb. 17, 2004.

Coralee Lane said her son had told her not to worry. He said, “It’s what I’ve trained to do. And if I don’t come back, I’ll know I did my duty.”

“They lost a good citizen and a good Marine. And we lost our baby,” his mother said.

Shawn Lane had 15 years of service and was five years shy of retirement. He leaves behind his wife of six years, Jennifer; a 4-year-old son, Jonathan; his parents; and his older sisters, Tina Sherman, of Campbell, and Darby Strumpeler, of Nebraska

August 7, 2004

Marine gunnery sergeant
Age 33

Shawn Lane's father-in-law wanted three things in the man his daughter chose to marry: a doting husband and attentive father, a good Marine and a drinking buddy.

Lane was all of those, and David Ropp couldn't have been happier when Lane married his daughter, Jennifer, in 1998. Lane was responsible, compassionate and fun.

"He had all the characteristics you could ever want," Ropp said.

Gunnery Sgt. Shawn Lane was killed July 28 in a mortar attack on his unit in Iraq. He was a radio chief assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division from Camp Pendleton.

Although the family is reeling from the loss, Lane's spirit will live on in the couple's 4-year-old son, Johnathan, Ropp said.

"He's the spitting image of his dad," Ropp said. "He's just full of life, full of energy."

The father and son were like "two peas in a pod," Jennifer Lane said.

Shawn Lane, 33, was born in Corning, N.Y. As a kid, he liked to wear his father's Air Force hat. When he was 8 years old, he announced that he would join the Air Force.

When he started looking into different branches of the military in high school, the Marines returned his calls first, and he enlisted. After graduating in 1989 from Corning's East High School, where he played baseball and football, he went right to work.

"He wanted to make a career of it, which he did," said his father, John Lane.

At a recent ceremony honoring Lane at Camp Pendleton, his fellow Marines were so choked up they could barely present their eulogies, John Lane said.

Shawn Lane used his humor as a way to lighten the mood in the most serious of assignments.

"He was really quirky and kept everyone in stitches," Jennifer Lane said.

Lane served in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. After that, he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, for two years before being assigned to Marine security guard duty in Hong Kong, where he guarded the U.S. Consulate. He met Jennifer in Hong Kong, where she was living with her parents for a year.

Next, he was assigned to Bogota, Colombia, where he guarded the American Embassy.

He and Jennifer didn't see much of each other during that time; she moved to Beijing after the year in Hong Kong. But when he was stationed at Camp Pendleton in 1996, the couple reconnected. Two years later, they married.

Jennifer said she can't believe the kiss they shared as he left for his second tour of duty in Iraq was their last.

"It seems like he's still there," she said, "like he's still coming home."
– Kristen Green