SHAWNEE, OK, USA
U.S. Marines
SSGT, HMM-364, MAG-39, 3D MAW, CAMP PENDLETON, CA
AL HILLAH, IRAQ 05/19/2003
If they ever had any doubt about their son SSG Aaron Dean White’s love of flying, Darrell and Karen White just had to look at the envelopes he’d sent home. On them, he’d drawn pictures of planes.
“That’s the reason he volunteered. He told me `Mom, I want to do it.’ He didn’t have to be a pilot – he simply loved being in the air,” Karen White said.
White, 27, of Shawnee, Okla., was one of four Camp Pendleton-based Marines who died in a helicopter crash May 19 in Iraq. He is survived by his wife, Michele, and 1-year-old daughter, Brianna Nicole.
“I think he had the calling to serve. He had to serve somebody, serve our country, serve the people,” his mother said. “He needed the challenge the Marine Corps would give him.”