Family Says Marine Was Leader to End

One was a gung-ho outdoorsman known for courting adventure in a military career that spanned more than a decade.

The other, a young man whose roots spread from Guatemala to Los Angeles, enlisted less than a year ago.

The Pentagon said Saturday that these two Marines -- Therrel S. Childers, 30, and Jose Gutierrez, 22 -- were the first U.S. servicemen to fall to hostile fire in Iraq.

Second lieutenant Childers was fatally shot Friday while leading his infantry platoon in securing an oil field pumping station in southern Iraq. Later the same day, Lance Cpl. Gutierrez, an infantry rifleman, was killed in fighting near the southern port of Umm al Qasr. Both were with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

In the hours after his death, loved ones shared their memories of Childers. Far less is known about Gutierrez.

Childers, who went by Shane, thrived on outdoor adventure, on physical fitness and pushing himself to the limit -- traits that helped make his love for the Marine Corps life seem almost preordained.

"He didn't want to sit behind a desk. He was born to lead," said his younger brother, Sam Childers. "He wasn't afraid of dealing with combat."

Childers grew up near Gulfport, Miss., and joined the Marines after high school. His family said it was no surprise that he, and not one of his troops, would have been shot in battle because he would have been at the front of the action.

"I would have been proud to serve under him," said his brother-in-law, Richard Brown, an Army sergeant who is preparing to ship out to duty in the Middle East within a week.

"Shane exemplified the Marines, gung-ho hoooah. The Marines represented honor, trust, physical fitness, leadership, the highest qualities a human being could have, and he wanted those qualities for himself. That's why he joined the Marines."

Brown said Childers, who arrived in Kuwait with his unit in February, was aware of the dangers of combat. "I'm sure he had a sense that it could get nasty," Brown said.

"He knew what he was getting himself into," Brown said. "He died doing exactly what he wanted to do, in the exact fashion he would have wanted -- a Marine officer leading his troops by being in front of them."

A Role Model

Childers pushed himself. He hiked, climbed mountains and competed in triathlons -- ever in competition with himself, it seemed. "He always said he was the second-best and the first-best would be him -- tomorrow," Brown said.