Marine's mom: "He died with honor"

            In living up to the Marine Corps motto "First to Fight," Lance Cpl. Charles Seth Sharp was the first to die.

            On July 2, in the opening hours of Operation Strike of the Sword into the Taliban-controlled heartland of southern Afghanistan, the 20-year-old former Alligator Point resident became its first casualty.

            A member of Company E of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Seth, as he was known, suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the neck as his unit pushed into Garmsir district, the northern point of a 75-mile stretch of the Helmand River valley south of Lashkar Gah.

            The assault is the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban government in 2001.

            Sharp's mother, Angela Sharp Preston, learned of his death that afternoon, after she returned home from picking up her 15-month-old son Alexander from day care in Sopchoppy.

            "I pulled up and I saw there was a strange van parked across the road from our house. My initial reaction was somebody might be robbing our house. I pulled on in, and I could see somebody in front of the van with a military hat," she said. "I knew right then."

            The half-dozen men in the van approached her, and asked if she was the mother of Charles S. Sharp.

            "The last person was in all-white, and I knew that person was the chaplain. They asked if we could go inside and talk," said Preston. "I couldn't move. I thought ‘how am I going to get out of this car?'"

            The entourage entered her 637 Pine Street home. "We sat down and they asked if they could talk to me about something," she said. "The one person who was speaking he introduced himself, but I don't remember his name. He said ‘I am sorry to inform you that you son has suffered a serious injury in Afghanistan.'

            "Just for a brief moment I felt a joy come over me, because he said injury. I'm thinking ‘OK, we can handle whatever it takes,'" said Preston. "Seconds later, he said your son has succumbed to the injuries.

            "I said ‘You know this could be a mistake, there was a lot of young men out there, they look alike," she said. "He said ‘No ma'am, it's not a mistake."

            Preston asked if he could go over the details again. Seth had suffered a serious gunshot wound and they tried to treat him at the scene but weren't getting a response. They put him on a military helicopter to the nearest triage and he died en route.

            At the same time Department of Defense representatives were visiting the Alligator Point home of Angela and Gus Preston, others were visiting Seth's dad and stepmom, Rick and Tiffany Sharp, in his boyhood hometown of Adairsville, GA.

            "Something Seth's dad told me, when I finally came out and asked him ‘I want to know what happened.' Apparently they had told him that ‘Let me assure you, the person or persons who did this, are no longer here to talk about it,'" said Preston.

            Seth's large extended family, however, is around to talk about the boy, the young man, the friend, they loved, as they prepare for his final flight Thursday from Dover Air Force Base to Tom B. David Airport in Calhoun, GA, the viewing at Dudley Barton & Son Funeral Home on Friday evening, and funeral services Saturday afternoon at Northpoint Church in Adairsville and burial at East View Cemetery.

            Several hundred people are expected for the funeral, which is bringing in family from Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and California.

"He was a great kid"

            As per the family's request, no photographs were allowed when Seth Sharp's body arrived on U.S. soil at 3:22 p.m. into Dover Air Force base on the Fourth of July.

            "I told them no. I don't mind if we see a picture of him with us but not that way," said Preston, who is collaborating closely with her ex-husband on details of their son's memorial.

            "We still remain very good friends. That's very helpful during this time," she said.

            Preston is keeping a brave, stoic face, the same face she tried her best to show her son when he chose to become a Marine, despite her serious misgivings.

            Without question, there is no hiding her pride, the same pride she felt when she named her son, Charles, after her grandfather, a World War II veteran, who died of a heart attack when she was six months pregnant with her son.

            "He was so excited for me," she said.

            Preston's father, Vietnam veteran David Story, came down this week to help her daughter with arrangements, but it turned out the support flowed both ways.

            "He's lived through this, he's been there," she said. "Dad is 65, a big, gruff person and he never shows emotion. I've never seen a man in that shape before. It was kind of like two lost souls trying to make a decision and nobody was any stronger than the other one.

            "I don't think there's really words to describe it, an emotional roller coaster. Some minutes you think you're going to be fine and the next minute you're not," Preston said. "You never expect to lose a child. It's pain you can't describe."

            Over the weekend, while the entire nation celebrated America's birthday in joyous abandon, Preston was having "a why day. Why my son? Why now? Those questions I'll probably never be answered. Seth would not talk about that stuff to me, knowing I would be upset.

            "Ever since when he left, it was much, much harder," she said. "I had a bad, bad feeling, a night and day, constant feeling that something was going to happen.

            "You try to shake yourself and say ‘What's the worst thing that could happen?'" Preston said. "And the worse thing that could happen happened."

            Seth Sharp's family back in Dalton, GA., where he spent his boyhood, have shared memories of the young man, their feelings of pride at his toughness, compassion and willingness to sacrifice his life for another.

            His father told the Rome News-Tribune of how his son asked for coloring books and crayons for Christmas, during his earlier nine-month deployment in Iraq.

            "It wasn't a moment later that he said it wasn't for him, but for the children he'd met in Iraq," Rick Sharp said. "Something that seems so simple here is a luxury for them, and I made sure the coloring books got to him. He was just that kind of kid.

            "He was proud to be a Marine and be called a Marine," he said. "It was a challenge that he wanted to face and see if he could succeed at.

            "He was a great kid, and he was a hero, and we want everyone to know the sacrifices he laid out his life for," said his dad.

"I got him the dress blues"

            When Seth was still in middle school, he came to Alligator Point to stay with his mom, and later attended Wakulla High School, as many students in that area often do.

            His best friend was Chris Dolan, and the two spent a lot of time together, "always running around, messing with things.

            "He was a great guy, a good friend, always positive about everything, real easy going," said Dolan.

            The two worked for a time for Thad Brett, who has a heavy equipment operations company on Alligator Point. "Thad had different projects and things and he would take the two boys with him," said Preston.

             "It was tough yesterday when I saw Chris get out of the car and Seth wasn't with him," she said. "We used to kid the boys how the car wouldn't go into drive unless both of those boys were in it."

            Seth Sharp had missed a lot of days of school at Wakulla, said his mom, and so when graduation neared, it looked like he wouldn't have the credits to graduate.

            "And when he got so discouraged that he wasn't going to get to graduate, he want back to his dad briefly and that is when he come up with the idea of joining the Marines," said Preston. "His big dream was always to be an architect and that was my dream for him also."

            Rick Sharp told his hometown newspaper that it wasn't easy giving his son permission to join the Marines at age 17. "We talked about it and talked about it and then I prayed about it," he said. "I always want to support my kids, and I knew he'd join when he turned 18 if I didn't sign for him.

            "But I asked him, ‘Why the Marine Corps?' He said, ‘Because it's the toughest, and I want to see if I can make it.' He told me he wanted to fight for those who couldn't fight for themselves," said his dad.

            Preston has serious reservations about her son's decision. "I guess my strong opinion was I knew what would happen if he joined. It was going to be a given thing he was going to Iraq," she said. "That was definitely not what I wanted to happen.

            "Seth really loved the water and the beach. I said ‘You love the water. How about the Coast Guard?" she recalled. "He was kind of headstrong about the Marine division."

            With Preston's pleas powerless against the Marine recruiter's persistence back in Georgia, she resigned herself to her son's choice.

            "I tried to be supportive because I love Seth that much. If he asked for the moon I would have given it to him," she said. "I tried not to be too upset in front of him, and show how bad I did not support that decision. I didn't want him to feel like he couldn't talk to his mom if he knew how she really felt about it."

            Preston drove together with her ex-husband to watch their son graduate from Parris Island. "I was proud of him for going through it," she said. "It was a grueling process. He was so thin. They work them really hard."

            Seth was in the top of his class in marksmanship, which came as no surprise to his mom. She knew the skills he had learned from his family hunting in the hills of Georgia, and that she witnessed as his Cub Scout leader growing up.

            "He was so proud and I was proud for him," said Preston. "I asked him ‘Son, you just let me know what you want for a gift for your hard work and effort."

            Soon after, Seth had an answer for his mom. "I'm thinking he wants a motorcycle," Preston said. "But he said ‘Momma, I know what I want. I would really like to have my dress blues.

            "Son, are you sure that's what you want?" Preston asked him. He was sure.

            "I got him the dress blues," she said. "He's got his pictures made with it on. When I talked to his dad yesterday, I told him I wanted him to be buried in it."

"I'm still very proud"

            Preston said sending her son off to Iraq was not nearly so difficult as his deployment to Afghanistan, which began less than two months ago.

            There had been a moments of joy and happiness right before that. Seth had returned from Iraq safely, and his mother had, to her surprise and amazement, given birth to a second son as she neared her 40^th birthday.

            "I guess it's kind of strange," she said. "We've been together 10 years and we just assumed we could not have children and I found out I was pregnant when Seth was in Iraq."

            Seth and his fiancée Katie McMahan, a cheerleader for the University of Georgia, had come down to visit, and seen his new brother and outlined plans for when Seth would return from Afghanistan Dec. 15.

            "I'll only have four or five more months in my contract after that," he told his mom, a realtor by profession. "I want you to help me find a house and go to school.

            "He was really excited. He talked about either going to Florida State or Daytona. At that point his fiancée was going to transfer here and start going to college here also," said Preston.

            A month ago, Angela and Gus Preston opened Preston's Eatery, in Panacea, and the family had even talked about opening a branch on St. George Island.

            "Seth, if you want to and we do that, you can manage the restaurant," Preston told her son, but then added "Well, I don't know about that. You might eat all the profits.

            "That kid could eat," she said. "Especially if we have Key Lime pie; that was his favorite."

            Preston's protective feelings prompted her to want to step in and stop her son from going, a son she still called "Little Bubby" a name his younger sister, Jessica, coined.

            "There's this kid bigger than I am and I still referred to him as my ‘little bubby' and he answered to that," said Preston.

            His mom sensed her son's fears and concerns, as only moms can, but he wouldn't indulge them or let them sway him. He had a job to do and he was going to do it. And she did her best to cope with her feelings.

            "I'm still very proud," said Preston. "I'm proud that he served his country and there's a lot of other parents that lost their children and probably look back and wish it hadn't been their choice.

            "I'm very proud Seth did what Seth felt he needed to do," she said. "He died with honor."

            Perhaps the depths of Seth's commitment can be illustrated by a story mom recalled after seeing a large tattoo of the Marine motto "Semper Fi" that he had emblazoned on his calf.

            "Don't you know that's permanent?" said Preston, exasperated.

            "Momma, I'm permanent," Seth replied.