Harry H. Timberman

Tuesday, March 20 2007 @ 07:08 AM EDT

Winona Daily News -- MINONG, Wis. — A 20-year-old Marine killed in Iraq was a "wonderful kid. He had a real big heart," his high school counselor recalled Monday.

Lance Cpl. Harry H. Timberman of Minong died Saturday from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement.

Timberman, a rifleman, was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force out of Twentynine Palms, Calif.

Timberman moved to Minong from Colorado with his mother in 2001 and enrolled in Northwood High School as a sophomore, said Paul Lake, a counselor at the school. He wrestled for the Evergreens, but received his high school diploma from Washburn County Alternative High School in Shell Lake in 2004, he said.

"He liked to help other kids," Lake said. "We weren’t surprised when he joined the Marines. He always wanted to be there to help people."

Lake said Timberman visited Northwood High School last Christmas and was very proud to be a Marine and expected to be sent to Iraq.

Rosemary Doyle, another school counselor, said Timberman volunteered for the school’s peer helper program.

"What a wonderful kid. He had a real big heart. He was always excited about helping," she said.

Doyle said she wrote a reference for Timberman when he sought to join the Marines.

"He thought it would help turn his life around," she said. "He was looking for a mission in his life and meaning in his life."

According to Gunnery Sgt. Chris Cox, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Timberman joined the Marines in August 2005 and was sent to Iraq in January.

He was the 70th soldier or Marine from Wisconsin killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. As of Sunday, at least 3,217 members of the U.S. military have died in the fighting.

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