Number 78

Kentucky's first Iraq clusterfuck casualty of 2009 is a Marine from a tiny mountain town deep in far southeastern Kentucky coal country.

Lance Cpl. Chadwick A. Gilliam, 29, of Mayking, Kentucky, died January 3 of an apparent heart attack at a U.S. military base in Kuwait. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

He grew up in eastern Kentucky and attended Whitesburg High School.

He was an infantryman and joined the unit June 25, 2007, and was promoted to lance corporal last year.

Gilliam attended the old Whitesburg High School in the mid 1990s. One of his former teachers, Scottie Billiter, said Gilliam inspired other students.

Billiter, now an assistant principal at Letcher County Central High School, said Gilliam had a wide array of interests, from the football team to the Spanish club. Billiter was Gilliam's home room teacher in 1995.

"There is not one of those kids that I had in my home room that I could tell one bad thing about because I have nothing but great fond memories of him. He was definitely a big part of that. He was a big part of who we were," Billiter said.