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About Captain 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 a Second Lieutenant. Following 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 star, Combat Action with star, Navy Unit Commendation with star, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Good Conduct, Selected Marine Corps Reserve, National Defense Service with 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. |
| From: Press-Enterprise, September 13, 2004
Inland Marine killed in Iraq
YUCCA VALLEY: He was one of four from Twentynine Palms who died Friday.
YUCCA VALLEY - U.S. Marine Capt. Alan Rowe and his wife Dawn didn't talk about his mortality before he shipped off last month for his second tour of duty in Iraq.
"No because, of course, Marines are invincible and they don't die," Dawn Rowe said Tuesday. "He was happy to die for his country and knowing that freedom wasn't free."
On Friday, less than two weeks after arriving in Iraq, the Yucca Valley resident was one of four Marines from Twentynine Palms to die that day, officials at the base said.
Rowe, whose son Blake is 5 and daughter Caitlin is 3, would have been 36 on Oct. 3.
Also killed were Lance Cpl. Nicholas Perez, 19, of Austin, Texas; Lance Cpl. Nicholas Wilt, 23, of Tampa, Fla.; and 1st Lt. Ronald Winchester, 25 of Rockville Center, N.Y.
Rowe was assigned to the thousand-member 1st Battalion that shipped out to Iraq between Aug. 25 and Aug. 27 to replace the 3rd Battalion, also headquartered at the Twentynine Palms base, said Sgt. Jennie Haskamp.
A Navy chaplain and two Marines, one of them a close family friend, knocked on Dawn Rowe's door Friday afternoon, she said.
She said they told her that her husband was killed in the al Anbar Province after crossing a bridge on foot to make sure it was safe to pass. When he returned to his Humvee, a bomb exploded.
Alan Rowe supported the Marines' mission in Iraq and did not believe the U.S. should abandon the people in that country, Dawn Rowe said.
"It's his job. He loves his job," she said.
Alan Rowe grew up in Gooding, Idaho, where his mother, Marian Rowe, and sister, Diana Pauls, still live. His father James Rowe lives in Twin Falls.
He joined the Marines when he was 17 because "he wanted to see the world," Dawn Rowe said.
During many deployments and tours, including the Gulf War in the early 1990s, Alan Rowe saw much of the world, she said. He loved the Philippines and the couple met when he was deployed to Bali, she said. They were married 11 years ago and moved to Yucca Valley in 2003.
Dawn Rowe described her husband as humble, quiet and soft-spoken, but with a strong presence.
On Tuesday, Dawn Rowe juggled phone calls, visitors and trips into town. She only had a few days to arrange two services for her husband.
His burial is scheduled for Sept. 11 in Fairfield, Idaho, a small town where he used to ski and hunt. Another service is planned for 10:30 a.m. Sept. 17 at the Twentynine Palms base, she said.
She stopped in a store to buy a card for her husband's commander, a family friend, to let him know she appreciates his job and still supports the Marines.
Making her way back from town, Dawn Rowe waved to another driver and told the woman what happened. The woman pulled over and sobbed. Dawn Rowe hugged the woman, her eyes remaining dry and her voice calm, but goose bumps rose over her arm.
The night Dawn found out, she cried after visitors had left her house.
"Since then, I haven't even caught my breath," Dawn Rowe said.
"You don't stop and think about it. You're so busy during the day. ... When you're in bed, that's when it hits you."
Family had come to visit and the Rowe's two children were with Sunday school teachers.
"They have good moments and bad moments," Dawn Rowe said. "My son asked me today 'Is dad really dead?' I think he wakes up every morning thinking it isn't true."
Capt. Chad Walton, spokesman for the base in Twentynine Palms, said Rowe commanded the 1st Battalion's weapons company.
Rowe, who held a bachelor's degree in political science from Boise State University, attended Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Va., in 1994.
Walton said enlisted service members must be recommended by superiors as someone with leadership qualities in order to enter the officers' school.
Staff writer Gregor McGavin contributed to this report. |
| From Diana Rowe Pauls 03/18/06:
My brother, Major Alan Blake Rowe, was killed in Iraq on Sept. 3, 2004. It was his fourth deployment and he'd been "in country" less than a week. He left behind a wonderful wife and two precious children.
One of my brother's serious interests (along with Broncos!) was Political Science. One of our favorite family stories is about the luncheon Alan attended with my father around age 6, where he sat next to then-Governor of Idaho, Cecil Andrus. From what I've been told, he chatted with Governor Andrus throughout the meal.
In the early 1990s, Alan worked as an intern for Idaho State Senator Laird Noh:
"He was interested in natural resources and natural resources management," Noh said. "He worked under my supervision. He was a marvelous human being and extremely motivated."
"At the time, Idaho was beginning to awaken to the implications of the Endangered Species Act," Noh said. The Legislature and the public didn't have a thorough understanding of the act, he said, so he tasked Rowe with writing a research paper on the potential listing status of various plants and animals in Idaho and what the implications were because of the provisions of the law.
"He just dug into it," Noh said. "He did a very professional job. We circulated it to all the members of the committee and media. I still refer to it periodically."
"He read newspapers and was very interested in the world around him," Noh added. "He was very mature. I was kind of hoping he was looking toward a career in natural resource management. But he was also oriented to a career in the military. He was a class act and a great citizen."
Alan received his Associates at the College of Southern Idaho and his Bachelor's at Boise State University, majoring in Political Science. After his death, one of his professors at CSI started a scholarship fund, "The Alan Rowe Memorial Political Science Scholarship". The only guideline attached at this point is that it will be used to fund a scholarship for a student studying political science at CSI.
No funds have been distributed because we need to raise the balance to a $10,000 endowment level. Since my brother was killed, our first concerns were for the educational fund for the children, then a fundraiser for families of local (Magic Valley) deployed Guard members, and then another fundraiser for TAPS (for families of other KIAs), so this is our first major request for donations.
Please consider supporting this opportunity to continue my brother's memory and honor his commitment to education and Political Science.
Thank you.
Donations should be made out to:
The College of Southern Idaho Foundation, Inc.
MEMO: Alan Rowe Memorial Scholarship
And mailed to:
CSI Foundation
P.O. Box 1238
Twin Falls, ID 83303-1238
Thank you so very much,
Diana Rowe Pauls
Very Proud Sister of Major Alan Blake Rowe of Gooding, Idaho
KIA 9-3-2004 in Iraq |
