Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremiah E. Savage

Died May 12, 2004 serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom

21, of Livingston, Tenn.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Pendleton, Calif.; died May 12 of wounds received due to hostile action in Ramadi, Iraq.

Jeremiah E. Savage had dreamed since grade school of becoming a Marine.

“And that’s exactly what he did,” his mother, Eva Savage, said.

“When he wanted to talk to me, it was usually about the military,” said his high school principal, Gary Ledbetter.

Savage, 21, of Livingston, Tenn., died May 12 from hostile fire in Iraq. He was based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

His wife, Kassandra, talked to Savage the day before he died and told him she had sent pictures of their newborn son. “I told him the pictures were in there with his cigarettes and he should be getting them any day now,” she said. “I’m pretty sure he never got them.”

He is also survived by a daughter and two stepchildren.

— Associated Press