|  Marines from St. Clair, Grosse Pointe Park killed in Iraq
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Two Marines with Michigan ties died in separate incidents in Iraq's Anbar province, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.
Maj. Joseph T. McCloud, 39, of Grosse Pointe Park, was one of four American service members who died Sunday when the CH-46 helicopter they were in crashed. McCloud was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
A power malfunction forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing on Lake Qadisiyah, a huge reservoir behind the hydroelectric dam at Haditha on the Euphrates River in Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. Twelve passengers survived.
There was no fighting in the area at the time.
McCloud was an infantry officer who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1990 and was commissioned in April 1992. He reported to Hawaii in April.
Lance Cpl. Thomas P. Echols, 20, of Shepherdsville, Ky., died Monday in combat, the Defense Department said. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Echols' grandfather, Don Wight, of Algonac, Mich., said Echols' wife, Allyson, is expecting the couple's first child in April. Echols spent his childhood in St. Clair, moved to Sault Ste. Marie with his family as a teenager and later moved to Kentucky with his family.
Wight said his grandson was a devoted Michigan fan.
"I'm an MSU grad. He's a died-in-the-wool University of Michigan fan," Echols told the Times Herald of Port Huron. "Anything he could find that was U of M memorabilia, he had it. ... He was just a good, fun-loving young man."
Echols' father, Kurt Echols, of Naples, Fla., said he supported his son's decision to join the Marines after graduating from high school in 2004.
Wight said his grandson had hoped that serving in the military would help him find a career path.
Childhood friend Tim Zamboroski, of Port Huron, Mich., said he felt like he had lost a brother. The two played Nintendo, backyard baseball and were active outdoors together as children.
"I think he was pretty happy with serving the country," Zamboroski said. "I'm gonna miss him."
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