Marine Lance Cpl. Jeramy Ailes, 22, of Gilroy was killed Monday in Al-Fallujah by small arms fire.

``They had finished mopping up in Fallujah and they went back to double-check on some insurgents. From what we gathered, somebody playing possum jumped up and shot him,'' said his father, Joel Ailes, who learned of his death Monday evening. ``It's extremely hard.''

In Live Oak, outside Santa Cruz, just hours after Hipolito and Yolanda Perez returned from a visit to Camp Pendleton, where Marine Cpl. Andres Perez and his 19-year-old sister, Elvira, were based, they learned their son was dead.

The 21-year-old Santa Cruz native had been killed Sunday by an enemy bomb in Al-Fallujah as his infantry unit retook the city from insurgents in preparation for January's Iraqi elections.


``Jeramy was the type of person who wanted to help other people. He didn't want to go in to kill people,'' said Joel Ailes.

His first time in Iraq, Jeramy Ailes gave $10 to each child he came across because he knew it would feed their families for 30 days. This time, he asked his family to mail as many soccer balls as they could. His family sent 300 balls, and Jeramy Ailes' platoon handed them out to children.

``He was a very caring person, everything about him was about the kids and helping people, he thought he could make a difference,'' his father said.

Joel Ailes warmly remembered the last conversation he had with his son last month, in which Jeramy Ailes recounted how he had come across a large man walking with a 12-year-old girl carrying a huge bale of straw on her back.

His son, who spoke and read Arabic, exchanged words with the man. And, for the next seven miles, his son carried the girl on his back and the man carried the bales of straw. ``That was my son,'' Joel Ailes said.

MercuryNews.com | 11/17/2004 | Two men from region killed in Iraq