Regina R. Clark |
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Regina R. Clark knew she was headed to dangerous territory. A few days before she died, a man right behind her was shot. But she was ready for anything. "She is by far the strongest human I've ever known," said friend Kim Elliott, "not woman but human." Clark, 43, of Centralia, Wash., was killed June 23 when a vehicle drove near her convoy in Fallujah and exploded. She was assigned to a unit from Camp Lejeune. Born in Kassel, Germany, Clark attended college on softball scholarships and joined the Marine reserves. Her brother and father served in the Navy, and she was a veteran of Desert Storm. Clark was called up one week after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In March 2003, the morning she headed to Kuwait, she told a local newspaper that she was ready to head to a hot spot. She said she told her then-16-year-old son, Kerry, who worried she might not return, "I could leave for work on a normal day and not come back. We never have any guarantees." Elliott said Clark planned to retire from the military when she returned from Iraq.