Jared P. Hubbard, Jeremiah A. Baro, Marines, Corporals -- Rest In Peace

Jared P. Hubbard, 22

Marines, Lance Corporal
Based: Camp Pendleton
2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: November 4, 2004
Fallouja, Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Clovis
High School: Buchanan High (Clovis)
Burial: Clovis Cemetery, Clovis, Calif.

Jeremiah A. Baro, 21

Marines, Corporal
Based: Camp Pendleton
2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: November 4, 2004
Fallouja, Iraq
Engaged
Gender: Male
Hometown: Fresno
High School: Buchanan High (Clovis)
Burial: Clovis Cemetery, Clovis, Calif

Two Marine Corps Buddies Inseparable in Life, Death

November 12, 2004

Mark Arax | Times Staff Writer

CLOVIS, Calif. — Growing up in the San Joaquin Valley, where so many dreams are hemmed in by the fields, Jeremiah Baro and Jared Hubbard had the good fortune of being suburban boys. Their fathers weren't farmworkers following the crops, but a loan officer and a cop who expected even more for their sons.

But when they graduated from high school three years ago, the standout wrestler and the football star seemed unsure what to do next. This much was certain, family and friends said: Wherever one would go, the other would follow.

In the months after Sept. 11, 2001, they headed to Camp Pendleton as part of the Marine Corps buddy program. When Baro, 21, decided to try out for an elite sniper unit, Hubbard, 22, stood beside him. It was Jeremiah and Jared, sharpshooter and spotter, right up to the day last week when they set out on a mission west of Baghdad.

In the early morning darkness of Nov. 4, as their families were still sorting out the presidential election back home, the two young men, on their second tour of duty, were struck by a hidden bomb detonated by an Iraqi insurgent. It must have hit just so, because of the eight Marines walking along both sides of the road, only two -- Baro and Hubbard -- were killed.

On Thursday, as the nation observed Veterans Day, the two hometown boys were buried side by side in a cemetery just down the road from where they grew up in this old rodeo town.

Read the entire LA Times article about Marine Corporal Jared P. Hubbard and Marine Corporal Jeremiah A. Baro here.