Pam Marshall of Tulsa received a telephone call Wednesday from her Army son in Iraq, asking if she had received the dozen pink roses he sent her for Mother's Day.

She told him they hadn't arrived, so Spc. James E. Marshall, 19, then told his mom he loved her. He also said he had to go out on a mission and would call her back to learn if she had received the Mother's Day roses.

The roses arrived about two hours later that day, but "the telephone call never came," the mother said Friday after being notified that her only son had been killed in Baghdad.

The Department of Defense said Marshall was killed Wednesday when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

The explosion in Baghdad also claimed the life of Pfc. Bradley G. Kritzer, 18, of Irvona, Pa.

Both soldiers were assigned to 1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.

Pam Marshall said she has questions about why America is at war in Iraq, but wouldn't be bitter and would celebrate his life as she goes along without her only son.

She said she would get her strength from the memory of her only child and her friends at Antioch Baptist Church, where the Rev. M.C. Potter is the godfather of her son.

The pastor, associate pastors and church members have been to her home since learning the news.

"They have been here for me," she said of the church members. "They have been there for me ever since he joined the military. Even before he joined the military."

Her son, the Tulsa mother said, "liked being a soldier. Whether he liked being over in Iraq, I don't know. I never asked him that question."

The specialist had been in Iraq just short of two months, having left on March 15 after a visit home, his mother said.

He had joined the Army in July 2002 after graduating from Tulsa Central High School and was scheduled to be in Iraq 18 months.

Asked if she was on edge during her son's time in Iraq, she said, "That's a must. If you don't worry there is something wrong with you."

The Army specialist had told his mother he would be home on leave again in September.

"I was looking forward to that," his mother said. "This is not the way I wanted him to come back."

Growing up, James Marshall had an interest in karate and enjoyed playing saxophone in the high school band, his mother said.

Told that his band director said that Marshall had a great sense of humor, was fun-loving and always seemed to be the first person to laugh. Pam Marshall said her son "liked to make people happy. If they needed help, he had no problem with helping them."

When the Army sent representatives to notify her of his death around 6 a.m. Thursday, the mother said, "I wasn't sure what they were coming for, but I knew it wasn't good.

"Once they told me, I was like 'no, it's not true, and don't come play with me like that. That's not something to play with.'

"It hit me today (Friday) for sure . . . I always had it in my heart and mind that he was coming back to me . . . not this way."

When he corresponded with her from Iraq, the specialist never talked about his role in the war. "He wanted to know what I was doing," his mother said. "He wanted to make sure I was always doing things.

"He tried to console me a little (by saying), 'Mommy, you have to go out with your friends and have fun. Don't sit at home and be by yourself.'"

In the memory of her son, she said, "I am not going to sit around and be sad and mope around the house . . . I am going to get out and do things. Like in the church like we always did."

Pam Marshall said she believes the United States should get out Iraq "until they found out what they are fighting for."

Despite the fact that her son died in a war she questions, she said, "I am not going to feel bitter. Nothing is accomplished by being bitter. That's not what my son would want.

"The Lord wouldn't have taken him if it wasn't his time to be gone."

Funeral services are pending.

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Rob Martindale (180_ 581-8367
rob.martindale@tulsaworld.com

For more information on Oklahomans killed in the War On Terror, See "OKLAHOMANS".

A funeral service and a high school band tribute have been scheduled for Army Spc. James Edward Marshall, 19, of Tulsa, who was killed May 5 in Iraq.

The funeral service is scheduled at 11 a.m. Saturday at Antioch Baptist Church under the direction of Jack's Memory Funeral Home. The Rev. M. C. Potter, the soldier's godfather, will officiate.

Burial will follow at Floral Haven Memorial Gardens in Broken Arrow.

The Tulsa Central High School band will pay tribute to Marshall at 7 p.m. May 27 at the high school, the band director said.

Marshall was a 2002 graduate of Central, where he played saxophone in the band.

Central High School students and alumni paid tribute Thursday night to one of their own -- a graduate who was killed May 5 in Iraq when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

The school dedicated "Old School Daze," an annual student variety show, to 19-year-old James Edward Marshall, a 2002 Central Graduate. However, because Marshall had been in choir and drama as well as band, department directors decided that a variety show would be more fitting, Rhone said.

"We decided it would be a better way of saying goodbye," he said.

Before the show began, a moment of silence was held in remembrance of the fallen soldier.

"We wanted to let everyone know that we care and he won't be forgotten and we miss him," Rhone said later.

An only child raised by a single mother, Marshall joined the military after graduating from high school. He had been promoted to specialist shortly before his death, Pam Marshall said.

He had served in Iraq less than two months when he was killed.

"He was so young," said Jean Keeton, the high school's assistant principal for academics. Keeton shook her head sadly, repeating, "He was so young."

In school, Marshall always had a smile, she said.

"He was always happy -- a jokester," said his mother. "He mostly liked to make people happy."

Marshall would have been a living success story if he had not been killed, Keeton said.

"He would have been a success story because he made it," she said.

Although Pam Marshall misses her son more than words can say, she is proud of him for serving his country. "I've always been proud of him," she said. "I've never been not proud of him."

Army officials posthumously awarded James Marshall the Purple Heart and Bronze Star and presented Central High School with a large plaque with his picture to commemorate the fallen soldier.

Marshall was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 21st Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas.

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Kendal Kelly 581-8413
kendal.kelly@tulsaworld.com