The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Lieutenant Colonel David S. Greene, 39, of Raleigh, North Carolina, died July 28 , 2004 due to enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was a reservist assigned to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 775, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3D Marine Air Wing, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California.

For further information contact the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar Public Affairs Office at (858) 577-6000.

A Lieutenant Colonel assigned to a Camp Pendleton helicopter squadron has become the highest ranking Marine to die in Iraq. 
 
Lieutenant Colonel David S. Greene, a reservist from Shelburne, Vermont, died Wednesday from wounds shortly after his gunship was hit, Major Randy Parker said yesterday.

No other Marine Lieutenant Colonel has died in Iraq since the war started March 20, 2003, according to Pentagon casualty records. Four Army officers of that rank have died.

Greene, 39, also was the first fatality for Helicopter Light Attack Squadron HMLA-775 during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Parker said. Several unit members have been wounded.

The helicopter unit is based at Camp Pendleton, but Greene served at the unit's detachment in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

"He was a star," said Parker, who is stationed in Johnstown and knew Greene. "The Marines who worked for him loved him."

Greene was liked because he was approachable and had a good sense of humor, Parker said.

The aviator is survived by his wife, Sarah, and two children, Wesley, 8, and Jenna, 10.

"They're a picture-perfect family," said a neighbor, William Hogan. "Dave was a hard-working father, husband and family man."

The close-knit enclave of 10 homes on the shore of Lake Champlain was "stunned and shocked" after military personnel arrived Wednesday afternoon to inform Sarah Greene of her husband's death.

Few details about his death were available yesterday.

Greene's gunship was one of two flying Wednesday afternoon in Anbar Province, the Sunni enclave west of Baghdad that has been a hotbed of insurgency attacks, when he was fatally wounded.

The helicopter's co-pilot landed the damaged Cobra.

Several Marine outposts had come under small arms and mortar fire and several airstrikes were ordered. It was unclear from military sources whether Greene was flying one of those missions.

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1986, he went to flight school. He was on active duty from 1986 to 1997 and participated in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

He joined HMLA-775 about five years ago, said Parker, who had met Greene while they were on active duty and serving in North Carolina. Greene continued to list Raleigh, North Carolina, as his home town.

Besides his duties as a pilot, he was the squadron's maintenance officer, overseeing the repair of the unit's AH-1 Cobras and UH-1 Hueys. The Cobras, armed with rockets, guided missiles and a rapid-fire Gatling gun, are primarily used for close air support.

As a civilian, Greene had was a program manager at the Goodrich facility in Vergennes, Vermont, for nearly four years. He managed a group that worked on fuel and maintenance diagnostic systems for the Cobra.

"Dave was not only a colleague to us, he was truly a friend," said Harry Arnold, a Goodrich division president.

Greene, 39, a Raleigh, N.C., native who lived in Shelburne, Vermont, died July 28, 2004, when the helicopter he was piloting was hit by ground fire. He was based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California.

In the same Connecticut church where Greene and his wife were married in 1989, the pilot was eulogized as a man with uncommon integrity and a generous streak. "If he said he was going to do something, he did it. When he asked for something, he really needed it," said Weir. Greene is survived by his wife, Sarah, and two children, Jena and Wesley,

Colonel Greene, the father of two young children, was killed by small-arms fire as he was flying a Cobra helicopter July 28, 2004, in Anbar province.

He grew up in upstate New York and went to Annapolis, remaining on active duty until 1997. He was living in Vermont doing diagnostic work for Goodrich Corp. when he was called to active duty. Friends remembered him as a family man who loved flying helicopters and cracking jokes.

GREENE, DAVID S   
LTCOL   US MARINE CORPS 
IRAQ 
DATE OF BIRTH: 08/12/1964 
DATE OF DEATH: 07/28/2004 
BURIED AT: SECTION 60  SITE 9628 
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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