http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20030325&Category=API&ArtNo=303251047&Ref=AR&cachetime=5



Two Marine Reserves Missing in Iraq



By JAN DENNIS

Associated Press Writer



Two Marine reserves are missing in Iraq after witnesses saw them disappear underwater while trying to cross a canal, a military official said Tuesday.



Cpl. Evan James, 20, and Sgt. Brad Korthaus, 29, were attempting to cross the Saddam Canal in southeastern Iraq when they disappeared Monday, said Gunnery Sgt. James Howard of the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Peoria, where the two men are based.



Two other Marines who were crossing the canal with them made it across safely.



The reserve center learned of the men's disappearance Monday evening, Howard said. Both serve with the 6th Engineer Support Battalion. Howard said he had no additional information.



Diane Kornegay, James' aunt, said two Marines came to James' home in La Harpe, Ill., on Monday night to tell his parents he was missing. The Marines had few details, she said.



"You've got to just keep praying for the best," Kornegay said.



James joined the Reserves to help pay for college, she said. He went overseas in February and last talked to his girlfriend about two weeks ago.



Three Marines came to Steve Korthaus' door Monday night and told him the Marines had been swimming across the canal when his son disappeared. They couldn't tell him why the men were crossing, he said.



Bradley Korthaus, of Davenport, Iowa, "wanted to be a Marine since he was 10 years old," said his father, himself a Marine who served in Vietnam. His son last called home a week before he left for Kuwait in February, Steve Korthaus said.



"He would have been mad if he didn't get to go," the father said.



Korthaus is engaged and was planning a wedding upon his return. His father said his family is hopeful that he is alive.



"He is a survivor," Steve Korthaus said.