A Bradford native was killed in Iraq Sept. 9 when he was a
passenger in a truck which drove over an Improvised Explosive
Device (IED), or roadside bomb.

Marlin Carnes, 54, of Apollo, Fla., near Tampa Bay, died while
working for Brown and Root Services, a subsidiary of Halliburton,
his mother, Kathleen Carnes confirmed to The Era Tuesday night from
her home in Bradford.

Carnes said her son was killed instantly when his truck exploded
after running over the IED. The unidentified driver of the truck
survived, according to Carnes.

There was no immediate word on exactly where the incident
occurred, however, it was not in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, Carnes
said.

“He volunteered to go to Iraq and drive truck and rebuild the
country,” his mother said of the 1969 graduate of Bradford Area
High School. “He thought he was doing his duty as an American and
trying to serve his country.”

Carnes said her son drove trucks for Ryder and other companies
over the years in the United States.

“The idea came up that they needed drivers over there (Iraq) and
he volunteered,” Carnes said, adding he would have been in Iraq two
years this December.

“He was not contracted to stay there,” Carnes said. “When you
first go in, they usually expect you to stay a year, but he could
have came back to the U.S. any time he chose.”

In addition to Pennsylvania, Marlin Carnes had also previously
lived in Georgia.

“He was a perfectly good man,” Carnes said of her son.

In addition to his mother, Marlin Carnes is survived by a wife,
Beverly of Apollo Beach; a sister, Rita Bergen of New York City; a
niece and nephew. He was preceded in death by his father, Robert
Carnes.

According to its Web site, Brown and Root currently has a
workforce in excess of 3,500 people who represent the company in
more than 70 projects or locations worldwide.

Services for Marlin Carnes will be held in Florida, according to
his mother.

Carnes is the fourth area native to either be killed or
seriously injured in Iraq.

Pennsylvania National Guardsman Pfc. Michael W. Franklin, 22, of
Coudersport, was killed during hostile fire in Ramadi in March.

Steven Kerr of Duke Center was injured May 21 in Khadasia after
he was hit in the back with the engine block of a car driven by a
suicide bomber while American troops were providing security
outside an Iraqi police station. The incident killed another
Guardsman and injured two others.

Most recently, Hazel Hurst native, U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt.
Jamie Himes Dana, was seriously injured after she and her dog, Rex,
drove over a roadside bomb near Kirkuk June 25. She was working as
a dog handler/kennel master with a bomb-sniffing K-9 unit. She was
believed to be the first female Air Force member to be injured in
combat.

She later received a Purple Heart and was visited by Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.