Vermont Marine killed in Iraq attack
Helicopter pilot loved his career
With his close-cropped dark hair, Lieutenant Colonel David S. Greene could have been on a Marine advertisement poster, a friend said.
''He was a great American, and a good-looking, handsome Marine," said Major Randy Parker, a spokesman for Greene's Marine Corps Reserve training detachment in Johnstown, Pa. ''He was a roll-up-your-sleeves, accomplish-the-mission kind of officer."
Greene, a career Marine and the father of two young children, was killed in Iraq Wednesday by enemy gunfire, the Pentagon said.
The 39-year-old helicopter pilot is among the Marines's highest-ranking officers to die since the US-led coalition invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Small-arms fire from the ground killed Greene as he and another pilot were flying a Cobra helicopter in the Al Anbar Province in western Iraq, Parker said.
''This guy was a star, and he's going to be sorely missed," said Parker, who had served with Greene since 1989.
The copilot who landed the helicopter was not injured, Parker said. No information was available about what type of mission they were on.
Greene's military career began when he was young. He grew up in upstate New York, Parker said, and went to US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. There, he studied physical science and played rugby from 1982 to 1986, said Laura Kurz, spokeswoman for the academy.
Greene flew Huey and Cobra helicopters in the North Carolina Area Marine Corps and worked as an air traffic controller until 1997 in the Mediterranean, and Indian oceans, as well as in Somalia, the Persian Gulf, and Kuwait shortly after Desert Storm, Parker said.
Greene later enrolled in the Marine Corps Reserve as a drill reservist. He was called for active duty in January and deployed to Iraq, Parker said.
Outside the Marines, Greene -- an affable man who wasn't afraid to crack a joke -- worked for Goodrich Corp. doing diagnostics work in its Vergennes, Vt., office. But more than that, Greene enjoyed spending time with his wife and children, said Goodrich co-worker Kip Freeman.
''He was a family man," Freeman said. ''He did the typical things: playing ball, taking them out hiking. And he loved being a Marine, loved flying his Cobras."
''Dave was not only a colleague to us -- he was truly a friend," Harry Arnold, president of Goodrich's fuel and utility systems division, said in a statement. ''His love for his family and our country will stay with us all."
Greene's wife, Sarah, could not be reached at the couple's Shelburne, Vt., home. She and the rest of the family are ''understandably devastated," Parker said. 