Copyright 2006 The Baltimore Sun Company
Md. Guard’s first combat death since World War II
By CHRIS GUY
The Baltimore Sun
SALISBURY, Md. — A Maryland National Guard sergeant from the Eastern Shore has died of wounds he received Christmas Eve when a roadside bomb went off in Iraq, becoming the first Maryland guardsman killed in combat since World War II, officials said yesterday.
Michael J. McMullen, 25, who in civilian life was a firefighter and paramedic with the Salisbury Fire Department, died Tuesday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, said Maj. Charles Kohler, a National Guard spokesman.
Officials said Sergeant McMullen was one of three members of the Baltimore-based 243rd Engineer Company who were gravely wounded by roadside bombs Dec. 24.
He was wounded in Ramadi when an explosive device went off as he tended to a fellow soldier who had been wounded minutes earlier in another explosion.
“This is the first combat fatality for the Maryland Guard since World War II,” Maj. Kohler said. Thirty-four Marylanders have died in military service since the Iraq war began almost three years ago.
Among them are three other members of the 243rd who were killed in October in a convoy accident.
Salisbury firefighters were told of their colleague’s death Wednesday when they were called to the department’s downtown headquarters.
“Here was a man who was using his training as a paramedic and gave his life trying to rescue another soldier,” Assistant Chief Timothy C. Keenan said yesterday. “It’s exactly what you’d expect from Mike. Everybody knew he was a solid guy, someone you could count on.”
Sergeant McMullen, a native of Pennsylvania whose family moved to the Eastern Shore when he was a child, grew up south of Salisbury in the town of Princess Anne. He graduated from Washington High School there in 1999.
He loved to cook but turned down a scholarship to culinary school in New Jersey in favor of a career as a firefighter, said Stephen E. Dickerson, a spokesman for the Salisbury department.
As a teenager, Sergeant McMullen was a volunteer firefighter in Princess Anne before being hired at the 170-person Salisbury department four years ago.
His training as a paramedic, a diver and a hazardous materials specialist prepared him for a slot with the department’s special operations team, officials said.
Chief David B. See recalled a “gung ho” firefighter who was well-liked throughout the department. “In my mind he is a hero. He was serving his country in the military, but he was really a firefighter at heart. We have all lost a great friend.”
Chief See said he had visited Sergeant McMullen and his family at the hospital Monday night. Sergeant McMullen, he said, was not conscious.
Sergeant McMullen was engaged and planned to marry when he returned from duty, he hoped by next August, fire officials said.
Yesterday, firefighters were torn between laughing and crying as Chief See told of an early meeting with Sergeant McMullen when he was a brash newcomer who pointed out that the chief’s mustache was longer than the department’s grooming rules allowed.
“Some of the guys thought he was nuts, talking to the chief like that. But what could I say -- he was right,” Chief See said. “I always called him `mustache’ from then on.”
Funeral arrangements were incomplete late yesterday. Family members have asked that burial be in Arlington National Cemetery after a joint funeral with full military and fire department honors in Salisbury.
In addition to his fiancee, Kimberly Mundorf, he is survived by his parents, David and Robin McMullen. All are of Salisbury, fire officials said.