1st Lt. Matthew Lynch, Trinity '01, died in Iraq Sunday after suffering injuries from a roadside bomb explosion Saturday near Ramadi, the capital of the Al Anbar province, the Department of Defense said Monday. Lynch, who lettered in baseball and swimming at Duke and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps a few months after graduation, is the first Duke casualty of the war in Iraq. He was 25.
At least 10 Marines died last week in Iraq's sprawling Al Anbar province--which includes the city of Fallujah, still home to a militant network run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who U.S. officials have said pledged loyalty to Osama bin Laden.
Lynch, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment, was on his third deployment in Iraq. During his military career, he was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal.
Lynch came back to his home in Jericho, N.Y., from his second tour in July. But soon after, he volunteered his service again and left for Iraq in August, said Bill Lynch, his father.
"He said he wanted to get back with his guys," his father said. "He wound up around Ramadi and kept writing us letters, telling us 'nothing dangerous is going on around here.' Yet if you read... about how the Marines near Fallujah and Ramadi were getting the daylights shot out of their vehicles, it seemed pretty dangerous.... He phoned us from Iraq... and said, 'It's not as bad as it sounds.'"
Word of Lynch's death spread to Duke late Sunday night and early Monday morning, when swimming and diving head coach Bob Thompson delivered an emotional speech to his team explaining what had happened.
"When you're in the swimming program for years, it becomes your family. They become like your kids," Thompson said. "It's heartbreaking--this has just rocked our world."
Lynch swam his freshman and sophomore years and but left the swim team to play baseball his junior year. He came back to swimming his senior year, competing in the 200 IM, the 100 and 200 freestyle and the butterfly events.
"He would have been team captain if he had been there his junior year," Thompson said. "He was one of our key guys. He was out there every day, so committed. He was kind of the perfect kid.
"I'm sure he was a damn good Marine."
Lynch's friends said the military was an obvious career choice for him. His father was in the Marines from 1962 to 1965, and his older brother Tim served as a Marine in Afghanistan. The two brothers met briefly in Kuwait before Tim left the military in 2003.
"Matt was just a wonderful kid," Bill Lynch said. "He and people like him represent the best that the country has to offer. Maybe he even gave a little too much of himself. He was supposed to be there for seven months, but he only got through about two."
Jack Newhouse, Lynch's best friend, met Lynch while they were being recruited for the Duke swim team in 1997. Newhouse and Lynch both excelled on the team, and both joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. The two remained close after college.
"Matt had a great sense of humor," said Newhouse, who graduated with Lynch in 2001. "He could joke around with the best of them. But he didn't listen to excuses and really looked down on people who couldn't just suck it up and get the job done. He was the kind of guy you'd be lucky to have as a brother."
Lynch was admired widely within his fraternity and on the swim team. Trevor Yates, who graduated last year and was the team captain, said he looked up to Lynch as a mentor on the team.
"I was a freshman, and he was a senior, and he was very intimidating to me because he was such a leader in practice and competitions," Yates said.
"I was thinking of the last time I saw Matt--it was in the spring. He came back to school to meet with some swimming friends of his, and he missed his flight to get back to the base," Yates added. "He knew he was going to have to get back the next day, but the two of us just played pool all night and hung out.
"I'm really grateful he missed that flight so that I had one last time with him."
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