2/4 sergeant major killed in Iraq helo crash - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

2/4 sergeant major killed in Iraq helo crash

OCEANSIDE, Calif. – The Pentagon on Friday identified one of the seven service members killed in Wednesday’s crash of a Marine Corps helicopter as Sgt. Maj. Joseph J. Ellis, the top enlisted man with a Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based infantry battalion.

Ellis, 40, was the sergeant major for Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, which is operating in Iraq as the ground combat force for the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable).

Military officials on Friday also identified two other victims in the crash of the CH-46E Sea Knight as two sailors: Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Gilbert Minjares, 31, of El Paso, Texas, with Marine Aircraft Wing 14 from Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station, N.C.; and Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Manuel A. Ruiz, 21, of Federalsburg, Md., with 2nd Medical Battalion from Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The helicopter crashed in an area northwest of Baghdad, and an insurgent group in Iraq claimed to have shot it down. Pentagon officials have dismissed the claims but said the investigation into the crash is continuing. The Pentagon also called a video making the rounds on the Internet claiming to be of the helo being shot down as “inconclusive.”

Ellis, of Ashland, Ohio, graduated from boot camp in 1984 and trained as a radio operator. He served with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion and deployed in 1990 to Saudi Arabia with 1st Force Reconnaissance Company for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, according to his biography posted on the 15th MEU’s website. Over his 22-year career, he did several tours at the School of Infantry, was the battalion radio chief for 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment in Hawaii and worked as a canvassing recruiter in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ellis joined 2/4 in late 2003 and deployed to Iraq as the Headquarters and Service Company first sergeant. He became the battalion sergeant major on Dec. 17, 2004.

Among his personal awards and decorations are the Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal with combat “V” and two gold stars and two awards of the Combat Action Ribbon.