Marine Cpl. Nathaniel T. Hammond, formerly of Tulsa, was killed Monday in Iraq, officials announced Tuesday. He was 24.

Having trained with a Marine Corps Reserve unit in Broken Arrow, Hammond was currently attached to a Reserve unit based in Chicago. His next of kin live in Missouri.

Hammond died with another Marine, Lance Cpl. Shane O'Donnell of DeForest, Wis., as the result of enemy action in Iraq's Babil Province. Details of the attack were not available, a Marine spokesman said.

The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader reported that Hammond was the eldest son of Thomas and Deborah Hammond of Brighton, Mo. He had one brother and four sisters and was a member of the 2nd Battalion of the Marine Corps Reserve.

"They're taking it very rough," Joshua Hammond, Nathaniel's younger brother, said of his parents.

"(My father is) devastated, and my mom is heartbroken."

The Springfield newspaper reported that when the news reached Nathaniel Hammond's alma mater in Pleasant Hope, Mo., some teachers choked up.

"It's just extremely sad," said Debbie Agee, a teacher at Pleasant Hope public schools. "I think I've learned what the ultimate sacrifice means . . . We sacrificed a wonderful young man.

"He was the sweetest. He was a very quiet and kind and friendly kid and very respectful," Agee said.

Joshua Hammond said his brother graduated from Pleasant Hope High School in 1998 and soon joined the Marines.

Sgt. Jared Deckard, who returned to Fair Grove in July from a 14-month deployment in Iraq, told the News-Leaader that his friend since the seventh grade had always wanted to be in the military.

"Ever since I knew him, he wanted to be in the Special Forces," Deckard said.

Although Hammond was yet to join that elite corps, "he died doing what he wanted to do and what he loved to do," Deckard said. Mp> Joshua Hammond, a Springfield truck driver, told the News-Leader that his brother was "always very happy" and "really, really family-oriented."

"He really loved his nephews, and he had two nieces -- one was born today -- that he hadn't seen," Joshua said Tuesday.

Nathaniel Hammond was a flight instructor at the College of the Ozarks before he was called to California to learn Iraq's local languages, his brother told the Missouri newspaper.

He also was a devoted Christian who attended Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Springfield whenever he was in the Ozarks, Joshua Hammond said.

Everybody who knew him held him in high regard," Joshua Hammond said. "I don't think the guy had any enemies. If he did, he would laugh with them and become good friends."

His assignment to Iraq not only took hiim to a beautiful country but also made him realize that American soldiers were doing a good service and that the Iraqi people welcomed them, Joshua Hammond told the News-Leader.

"Women and children could come out of the house because no one (would) kill them any more," Joshua Hammond said.

Nathaniel Hammond would not regret dying in combat, he said.

"Nathan really believed what he was doing," Joshua Hammond said. "If he had a choice to die, that was the way he wanted to die."

The pain is there, but Cpl. Nathaniel Hammond's war death in Iraq is tempered by the love he had for the military, that country and its people and his church, the Marine's father said Wednesday.

The 24-year-old former Tulsa resident enjoyed Iraq so much that he planned to return to that country as an officer and a helicopter pilot when his enlistment ended in March of next year, said the Marine's proud father, Thomas Hammond.

The Department of Defense said the Marine was killed Monday in fighting in the Iraq province of Babil, which is known for insurgent kidnappings and ambushes and is home to ancient Babylon.

Only days before he had been spearheading an effort as part of "Operation Fury" to ward off insurgents in Fallujah, which lately has been the deadly centerpiece of the war in Iraq.

Hammond was a member of the Anti-Tank Training Company in Broken Arrow, a Marine Reserve unit, and was attached to the 4th Marine Division based in Chicago. While a Reserve member of the Marines, which he joined in March 1999, Hammond had lived for more than five years in Tulsa while attending the Spartan School of Aeronautics, from which he graduated in 2003.

While in the Marine Reserve and attending the Spartan school, he also held down a full-time job at DHL Worldwide Express in Tulsa.

He was scheduled to be discharged in March.

The Marine was activated last spring and, before going to Iraq near the end of August, he was sent to a language school where he learned that country's language, his father said.

"He always said he wanted to be able to speak seven languages, and he could speak three -- American, Spanish and Iraqi," the father said.

The church Hammond attended in Springfield, Mo., also was at the center of his life.

"When he was home, that is where he went. He was very happy to be a Christian young man, and he held to his values," the father said.

Tom Hammond said his son "loved being over there (Iraq). He absolutely loved it."

Having completed a course in Arabic, the Marine could freely converse with Iraqis.

In a letter Tom Hammond and his wife, Deborah, received from their son about two days before his death, the Marine wrote about his attachment to the Iraqi people.

"He said he loved going into towns, talking to the people and especially the children to whom he gave candy. It was like a celebration," his father said.

With his March discharge on the near horizon, Hammond said he planned to take a month off and then re-enlist as an officer, hopefully becoming a helicopter pilot in the war zone.

He already had completed officers' school, his father said.

"Nate had been wanting to be a Marine since he was a little boy, about 8 years old. That is the beauty of all of this. Knowning that makes this a little easier," the father said.

While funeral services are pending, Hammond will be buried in the Springfield National Cemetery, the family said.

Close to the same time that Hammond was killed in Iraq, a sister, Katie, went into labor and gave birth to Tom and Deborah Hammond's eighth grandchild.

"Nathan dies and we get our eighth grandchild . . . It is what you call bittersweet," the Marine's father said.

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Rob Martindale 581-8367
rob.martindale@tulsaworld.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Funeral services for Marine Cpl. Nathaniel Hammond, 24, who was killed Nov. 8 in Iraq, will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at the Greenlawn Funeral Home North.

A full military burial for the former Tulsan will follow in Springfield National Cemetery.

The family will receive visitors all day Thursday at the funeral home.

Hammond was killed in fighting in the province of Babil.

He was a member of the Anti-Tank Training Company in Broken Arrow, a Marine Reserve unit, before being attached to the 4th Marine Division in Chicago and assigned to Iraq.

Hammond joined the Marine Reserves in 1999 and lived in Tulsa for more than five years, during which time he attended the Spartan School of Aeronautics and was employed by DHL Worldwide Express.

He was a qualified flight instructor and spoke English, Spanish and Arabic.

Hammond is the son of Tom and Deborah Hammond of Brighton, Mo., in the Springfield area, where the Marine was raised.

Hammond also is survived by five sisters and one brother.

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