Jacob C. Leicht

A LIFE REMEMBERED

We speak the name.

Marine Cpl. Jacob C. Leicht died May 27 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.* * * * *Marine was 1,000th Afghan war casualtyBy Paul J. WeberThe Associated PressKERRVILLE, Texas &#8212 The 1,000th American service member killed in Afghanistan was born on the Fourth of July. He died several days before Americans honor fallen troops on Memorial Day.Marine Cpl. Jacob C. Leicht was killed May 27 when he stepped on a land mine in Helmand province that ripped off his right arm. It was the 24-year-old Texan&#8217s second deployment overseas.Leicht had begged to return to the battlefield after a bomb took out his Humvee in Iraq. He spent two painful years recovering from face and leg injuries, all the while pining for combat in letters from his hospital bed.He finally got back to the front lines but was killed less than a month into the tour of duty he desperately wanted.&#8220He said he always wanted to die for his country and be remembered,&#8221 said Jesse Leicht, his younger brother. &#8220He didn&#8217t want to die having a heart attack or just being an old man. He wanted to die for something.&#8221An Associated Press tally shows Leicht is the 1,000th U.S. service member killed in the Afghan conflict. The first death &#8212 nearly nine years ago &#8212 also was a service member from the San Antonio area.When military officers went to tell Leicht&#8217s parents their adopted son had died in combat, sheriff&#8217s deputies had to help navigate them to the 130-acre family ranch tucked deep in the Texas Hill Country.It was here that Jacob Leicht chopped thick cedar trees and hiked the rugged limestone peaks, growing up into an imposing 6-5, 200-pound Marine with a soft heart. He watched &#8220Dora the Explorer&#8221 with his brother&#8217s children and confided to family that he was troubled by the thought of young civilians being killed in battle.But for Leicht, born in a Lemoore, Calif., Navy hospital, the battlefield was the destination. He threw away a college ROTC scholarship after just one semester because he feared it would lead away from the front lines.&#8220His greatest fear was that they would tell him he would have to sit at a desk for the rest of his life,&#8221 said Jonathan Leicht, his older brother.When Jacob Leicht&#8217s wish finally came true, it didn&#8217t last long.His first deployment was to Iraq in 2007, but he was there just three weeks when Jesse Leicht said his brother drove over two 500-pound bombs beneath the road.One detonated, the other didn&#8217t. The blast tore through the Humvee, shooting the radio into Leicht&#8217s face and knocking him unconscious. He felt something pinch his thumb, and the gunner&#8217s face was filleted so badly by shrapnel that medics couldn&#8217t keep water in his mouth.None of the five people inside the vehicle died. Jesse Leicht said an Iraqi interpreter, the only one on board who wasn&#8217t seriously injured, dragged his brother from the mangled vehicle. The blast snapped Jacob Leicht&#8217s fibula and tibula, and the recovery was an agonizing ordeal of pins and rods and bolts drilled into his bones.But all Jacob Leicht could think about was going back. He launched a campaign for himself at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, writing letters and making phone calls about returning to combat. More than two years later, he was finally healthy enough to serve again.Nine days before his brother stepped on a bomb in Afghanistan, Jesse Leicht enlisted in the Marines. Using Facebook to reach a friend stationed not far from his brother, Jesse asked the soldier a favor: If you see Jacob, let him know I signed up like him.&#8220Hopefully,&#8221 Jesse Leicht said, &#8220he got the word.&#8221