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Written by Diane M. Komiskey, Prairie Advocate Reporter HANOVER - A The Marine's grandfather, Howard Haggerty of Hanover, a Korean War veteran, served with the 19th Combat Engineers in 34 degree weather. His grandson serves in the desert on an amphibious landing vehicle equipped with 50-caliber and 20-mm equipment. Zach is the driver of the tank-like machine, which Howard said is lightly armored and could hold an entire squad. Zach is a hard worker and good help, Howard said. As a boy, Zach mowed lawns, shoveled snow and worked with Howard on model train sets. He worked at a train shop in Savanna, played drums in the school band and jammed with friends while in high school. Zach was an honor-roll student who graduated from River Ridge High School in 2001. Howard said a recruiter attracted Zach to the military, and Zach decided he wanted the toughest forces, so he joined the Marines. Howard's wife, Pat Haggerty, played a key role in Zach's life after his mother died of cancer when Zach was nine years old. Pat said she was surprised one day when she visited the house and learned 8-year-old Zach had prepared his mother's breakfast. "He had helped care for her," Pat said. "That was amazing." Her voice cracks when she thinks about the "really caring boy" being in harm's way. "He'd do anything for anybody." Pat saw Zach regularly before he joined the Marines. He lived across the street from her, ate meals at her home and won a place in her heart with his heading-out routine. "He'd hug and kiss me and tell me, 'I love you.'" The routine continued from childhood through his visit shortly after Christmas. "I miss all of that," Pat said. She's glad Zach's older brother Brandon lives in Hanover. Pat's only son Gary said Zach was polite and obedient "He didn't put things off," Gary said. "If it had to be done, it was done." The description of Zach echoes in Gary's words about his son serving near Iraq. "I, like any other parent, know he has a job to do, and that's what he chose to do, " Gary said. "I'm not sitting too easy with it right now, but we have to do what we have to do." Genevieve Virtue, a next-door neighbor and retired school teacher, said Zach was a good friend to her. She enjoyed sitting in the yard and visiting with him. Virtue said he was fond of cats, and his pets followed him to her house and sometimes tried to dash inside. Gary's friend Sandi Krick during an interview Friday laughed about Zach's fondness for cats and the way the couple refers to him as their "little Marine." He is a slender, 6-foot-3 inch brown-eyed man who left Camp Pendelton, CA, Feb. 2 for the Middle East. Zach had been the person responsible for much of the household maintenance. Before he left, Zach made sure the family knew how to handle the duties he had watched over, and Sandi told him his mother is watching over him. The last the couple knew, he was about 5 miles from the Iraqi border with his gun, Toots. About a year earlier had given the same name to a stray cat he rescued from a snowstorm and adopted. Zach recently sent Gary and Sandi a poem. "It was just like a hug," Sandi said. The poem gave the couple reason to laugh while they thought about their little Marine with a gun named for a pet. Zach's poem was: Dad and Sandi, Mailing address: |
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anover man in February waited in the Gulf region for war, penned poetry and practiced with a gun named for his pet. Back home, Marine Lance Cpl.