Scott Joseph Fleming – First Lieutenant, United States Marine Corps

by

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 850-10
September 20, 2010

DOD Identifies Marine Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

First Lieutenant Scott J. Fleming, 24, of Marietta, Georgia, died September 17, 2010, while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.  He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Marietta Marine Killed During Afghan Security Mission
Lt. Scott Fleming, 24, To Be Honored This Week
18 September 2010

MARIETTA, Georgia — A Marietta family is preparing to honor their son with a burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Lieutenant Scott Fleming was killed Friday during a combat operation in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. His unit was conducting pre-election security operations when he was struck by enemy small arms fire.

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He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, IIawaii, Marine Expeditionary Force at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Fleming was commissioned in the Marine Corps in August 2008 and joined 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment in October 2009. He was serving as a platoon commander with 1st Platoon, Kilo Company. Fleming’s unit deployed to Afghanistan in May to conduct counterinsurgency operations partnered with Afghan national security forces.

Fleming earned the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.

The Marine was shot in the neck during the assault and taken by air to Camp Leatherneck, where he was pronounced deceased.

Fleming’s body arrived Saturday afternoon to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. Officials are preparing him for internment at Arlington National Cemetery some time this week. Fleming requested this privilege in his will.

Fleming was a graduate of Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell as well as LaGrange College.

He is survived by his wife Brandi, father Joseph, mother Joanne, and sister Andrea.

The family is working on plans for a local service.

Courtesy of the Atlanta Journal Constitution
By Rhonda Cook
18 September 2010

The words from a Marine captain were according to script, but they tore a hole in a father’s heart.

First Lieuenant Scott Fleming, a U.S. Marine from Marietta, was killed in action in the Helmand province of Afghanistan Friday.

.“I regret to inform you that Lieutenant Scott Fleming was killed in action,” were the words coming in to the cell phone as Joseph Fleming and his wife sat in a restaurant at the Florida line on Friday, a stop on their way to a vacation.

Their son, Marine Lieutenant Scott Fleming, was killed in combat in Afghanistan.

Joseph Fleming, speaking to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Saturday, repeated the rest of the death notification by rote. There was small arms fire. His 24-year-old son died at a base hospital.

“I heard that statement from the Captain all night long,” the grieving father said from his home in Marietta.

“We’re still numb,” he said of his wife, their daughter and their daughter-in-law who is in Hawaii. “This just happened yesterday. He was with a support team of Marines.”

Scott Fleming was shot as his unit was conducting combat operations Friday in the Helmand province of Afghanistan. His unit was providing security for the parliamentary elections.

In other areas of the country, the voting has drawn rocket attacks and grenade and bomb explosions. The Taliban vowed to disrupt the voting, so turnout was light, according to reports. Many polling stations were attacked and hundreds never opened.

“We had a long discussion about this; what can happen,” Joseph Fleming recounted of his talks with his son about going to Afghanistan. “He said ‘I may not come home.’”

The father’s response was “I know.”

Scott Fleming was a sophomore at Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell on September 11, 2001, and it was those attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that led him to decide to join the Marines.

“He was pretty affected by 9-11,” Joseph Fleming said. “He decided he wanted to be a Marine officer and he chose the infantry.

Joseph Fleming said his son was outgoing and open about his thoughts and feelings. “We had no secrets. He was a great person,” the father said.

And he knew what he wanted to do with his life.

Scott Fleming began his Marine training two weeks after he graduated from LaGrange College with a degree in education.

He met his soon-to be-wife while he was training in Quantico, Virginia, Scott and Brandi Fleming  married a year ago.

He told his family he planned to make the military his career.

Scott Fleming talked to his family in Georgia – father Joseph, mother Joanne; and younger sister, Andrea – several weeks ago and told them “things were looking good” in Afghanistan. Yet in an e-mail a week ago he wrote about the fight on a recent mission during which his and other platoons engaged the Taliban.

“There were casualties and he was responsible for calling in medevacs,” Joseph Fleming said. “He says ‘next week my platoon is going back into that area and everything should go fine and if not everything will be fine.’

“And it wasn’t,” Joseph Fleming said.

FLEMING, SCOTT JOSEPH
1ST LT   US MARINE CORPS

  • DATE OF BIRTH: 04/03/1986
  • DATE OF DEATH: 09/17/2010
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 60  SITE 9182
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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