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Major Alan B. Rowe
Died: September 03, 2004
35, of Hagerman, Idaho; assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif.; killed Sept. 3 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq.
About Major Alan Blake Rowe
Born in Woodland, CA, on Oct. 3, 1968, to James A. Rowe and Marian Blake Rowe, he came with his family to Idaho when he was 1 year old.
He attended school in Hansen until 1978 when he moved with his family to a farm north of Gooding. Alan was very active in Hansen and Gooding 4-H Clubs, as well as the Gooding High School Future Farmers of America. He exhibited beef shorthorn and dual-purpose milking shorthorn cattle and won many FFA local, district, and state public speaking awards. He enlisted in November 1985 while a senior in high school and graduated high school in May of 1986.
Upon completion of recruit training at MCRD San Diego in the fall of 1986, he served with First Force Reconnaissance Company, I Marine Expeditionary Force, participating in two Western Pacific deployments and Operation Desert Shield/Storm. After leaving active duty in August 1991, Sergeant Rowe joined Company C, 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division, where he served as a tank commander, platoon sergeant, and platoon commander.
While in the active reserves, he attended Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, and was accepted in the Platoon Leader's Course. Upon graduation in 1994, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. Following the completion of The Basic School and the Infantry Officer Course in Quantico, Va., Second Lieutenant Rowe reported to 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment and was assigned to Company B as a rifle platoon commander. Second Lieutenant Rowe was promoted to First Lieutenant in December 1996. While serving with 1st Battalion he served as the Boat Company platoon commander and conducted a Western Pacific deployment with Battalion Landing Team 1/1. Upon return, 1st Lieutenant Rowe was assigned back to First Force Reconnaissance Company in July 1998. While serving with First Force, he was promoted to Captain in January 1999. During this time period, he deployed on two separate Western Pacific deployments
In February 2000, he was assigned as the Officer in Charge of the Basic Reconnaissance Course, Coronado Island, CA Captain Rowe received orders in August 2002 to attend the Expeditionary Warfare School in Quantico, Va. After graduation, Captain Rowe was stationed at 29 Palms, CA, and assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. While assigned to 1/7, Captain Rowe deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in June of 2003 and then re-deployed to Iraq this year in August 2004. His combat death occurred less than two weeks after arriving in-country. His final assignment was that of Weapons Company Commander, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.
Alan is survived by his wife, Dawn Haynes Rowe; two very special children, Blake Robert Rowe, 5, and Caitlin Nicole Rowe, 3, all of Yucca Valley, CA He is also survived by his father, James A. Rowe of Twin Falls; and mother, Marian Blake Rowe of Gooding; and a sister, Diana Rowe Pauls.
Alan was preceded in death by his grandparents, John Oliver Rowe and Lillian B. Wood Rowe of Davis, CA, John Luther Blake, and Minniella Parker Blake of Arcadia, CA.
Alan was admired by many for his outstanding qualities of integrity, devotion, and commitment to duty. He loved the mountains, beauty, and peace found in Idaho. He loved taking his Bronco (whichever one was running at the time!) into the hills with his children. He loved the Marine Corps and his country.
He had dreamed of serving his country since he was a small boy. When he became a Marine, he thrived and excelled in the opportunities the Corps offered. We receive some comfort knowing that Alan lived and died doing and being what he wanted to be: A Marine.
Captain Rowe's decorations include Purple Heart, Navy and Marine Commendation, Navy and Marine Achievement with a star, Combat Action with a star, Navy Unit Commendation with a star, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Good Conduct, Selected Marine Corps Reserve, National Defense Service with a star, Armed Forces Expeditionary, Southwest Asia Service, Global War On Terror Expeditionary, Humanitarian Service, Sea Service Deployment with four stars, Kuwait Liberation (Saudi Arabia), Kuwait Liberation (Kuwait).
Alan will be greatly missed, but always deeply loved and remembered as the honorable Marine as well as our husband, father, son, brother, nephew, and cousin.
His death is a tragic loss to his family, his friends, the Marine Corps, and his country. He died a hero to us all, reminding us that freedom is not free.
Captain Alan Blake Rowe will receive full military honors at his burial in Fairfield, Idaho. Funeral honors will be provided by Company C, 4th Tank Battalion, Boise, Idaho.
Captain Alan Blake Rowe, USMC, 35, was killed in combat action in Iraq on Friday, Sept. 3, 2004.
Idaho Marine killed in Iraq
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho - A Marine from Idaho was killed while securing a bridge in northern Iraq.
Capt. Alan Rowe, 35, died instantly Friday in Iraq's Anbar province. It was the fourth time Rowe had gone overseas with the military. He was the seventh Idaho serviceman to die in the Iraq war.
"He did it. He didn't question it. He was doing it for our country," said Diana Pauls, Rowe's sister. "He knows he was helping the Iraqi people. That was what he wanted to do all his life."
Lance Cpl. Nicholas Wilt, 23, of Tampa, Fla., and 1st Lt. Ronald Winchester, 25, of Rockville Center, N.Y., also were killed.
Rowe, a former Hagerman resident, is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter in Yucca Valley, Calif., said Capt. Chad Walton, a public affairs officer for the Marine base at Twentynine Palms.
Rowe enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1985 and graduated from officer candidate school nine years later. He was sent to Iraq in August, Walton said.
The soldiers were all members of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Twentynine Palms, Walton said.
"Our family is extremely proud of Alan," his family said. "He believed in his corps and in his country. We love him deeply and will miss him terribly."
Officer killed in Iraq remembered as perfect Marine
GOODING, Idaho - Capt. Alan Rowe is being called a perfect Marine, respected and dedicated to the Corps, and still able to be a husband and father.
The veteran of four overseas deployments, Rowe was killed along with two other Marines last Friday in an explosion in Iraq's Anbar province, near the Syrian border. He was a member of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Rowe, 35, was the seventh Idaho serviceman to die in the Iraq war.
"He was a quiet, humble person and extremely polite," his widow, Dawn, recalled from their early days of dating. "He was a traditional type of gentleman. My mom was surprised to meet such a ... perfect-picture Marine."
A graduate of Gooding High School, the College of Southern Idaho, and Boise State University, where he earned a degree in political science, Rowe served as an intern in the early 1990s to retiring state Sen. Laird Noh.
"He was a class act and a great citizen," Noh said.
Rowe's funeral was scheduled for Saturday at Mountain View Cemetery in Fairfield, near Soldier Mountain where the coupled skied. Dawn Rowe said she considered burial in the new veteran's cemetery in Boise but decided the Soldier Mountain area was "so much more what he was about."
The couple had two children, Blake, 5, and Caitlin, 3.
"He did a great job balancing a pretty intense Marine Corps career with also being a great husband and father," Dawn Rowe said. "He worked extremely hard to balance it."
A memorial service was scheduled for Friday on the Marine Corps Base at Twentynine Palms.
Heidi Kinner and her husband, Scott Kinner, befriended the Rowes 10 years ago when the men served together in the Marines.
"He was so dedicated to the Marine Corps," she said. "He was really driven and believed in what he did. He was a Marine's Marine. Tall, blond, and fit. Kind of the mental image you think of when you think of the Marine Corps."
- Associated Press
Marine receives a posthumous promotion
GOODING, Idaho - Capt. Alan Blake Rowe has been posthumously promoted to major after being killed in Iraq last week.
Dawn Rowe, the widow of the 35-year-old Marine, said the promotion had been pending and would have been awarded within the next few months.
Rowe was the weapons company commander for the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Twentynine Palms, Calif. He died last Friday when a remote-controlled explosive device detonated as he returned to his vehicle after inspecting a bridge in Anbar province, near the Syrian border.
- Associated Press