Marine Lance Cpl. Jacob W. Beisel

21, of Lackawaxen, Pa.; assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died March 31 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Anbar Province, Iraq. Also killed were: Lance Cpl. Kun Y. Kim, Staff Sgt. Eric A. McIntosh and Cpl. Scott J. Procopio.






Two Pa. Marines killed in Iraq

LACKAWAXEN, Pa. — Two Marines from Pennsylvania were killed in separate incidents in Iraq, military authorities said Wednesday.

Lance Cpl. Jacob W. Beisel, 21, of Lackawaxen, died Friday from wounds sustained in combat in Iraq’s Anbar Province, the Department of Defense said. Staff Sgt. Eric A. McIntosh, 29, of Trafford, and two other Marines died Sunday, authorities said.

Both were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Beisel joined the Marines in September of 2003, a few months after graduating from high school. He had just started his second tour in Iraq when he was killed, according to a public affairs officer at Camp Lejeune.

“I think he’s the kind of student that everyone wants to have,” said Joann Hudak, Beisel’s principal throughout middle school and high school. “Quiet, went about his business, respectful, a really solid young man from a good family.”

Hudak, principal of Wallenpaupack Area High School, said Beisel planned to attend college after leaving the military.

The high school observed a moment of silence Monday after Hudak announced Beisel’s death. Hudak said she is working with the Class of 2003 on some sort of memorial, perhaps a scholarship.

Beisel is survived by his mother, father and a younger sister. Funeral plans were private.

McIntosh was a 1996 graduate of Penn Trafford High School in suburban Pittsburgh.

McIntosh was an infantry unit leader and had joined the Marines in September 1996, according to Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Barry Edwards. Beisel was a mortarman who joined in September 2003.

Edwards said he could not release family information. No phone number for McIntosh in Trafford could immediately be found.

Also killed Sunday were Lance Cpl. Yun Y. Kim, 20, of Atlanta, and Cpl. Scott J. Procopio, 20, of Saugus, Mass.

— Associated Press