FORKS, WA, US
U.S. Marine Corps
PFC, D CO, 3D LAR BN, (RCT-7, I MEF FWD), 1ST MAR DIV, TWENTYNINE PALMS, CA
07/29/2006, RAWAH, IRAQ
A young Marine whose life was saved by a protective vest last spring and survived three car accidents in Iraq has died in subsequent combat, his family has been told. Private First Class Jason Hanson, 21, of Forks, was one of four Marines who died Saturday in combat in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, military officials said. Military officials informed the family that all four were in a building that collapsed from a nearby explosion, Hanson’s mother, Carol Hanson, told The Seattle Times on Wednesday. She said her son had dreamed of entering the Marines from age 14.
“He believed in fighting for his country,” she said.
Hanson, a scout for the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, based in Twentynine Palms, California, was leading a patrol in June in Habbaniyah, near Fallujah, when a 7.62 mm bullet fired by a sniper was stopped by a vest with small arms protective inserts known as SAPI, leaving him with only bruises on his chest.
He arrived in Iraq in March, a month after he got married, and described the close call in an interview for a Marine Corps online news service. His mother said he also had survived three car accidents in Iraq.
He will be remembered by his family and friends as a small-town boy who loved fishing, music and motorcycles, his mother said. In addition to his wife Maria Parias-Hanson and mother, Hanson is survived by his father, Stephen Hanson, brothers Jacob and Samuel and sister Sarah, and by grandparents Ed and Geraldine Finley of Forks, Mary Hanson of Rockport, Mass., and Ellis Hanson of Naples, Florida.