Thomas J. Zapp
Profile
Age: 20
From: Houston
Assigned to Combat Service Support Battalion 1, Combat Service Support Group 11, 1st Force Service Support Group, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Incident: Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas J. Zapp was killed Nov. 8 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq.
Died: November 08, 2004
Former star baseball player killed in Iraq
Associated Press
HOUSTON — A 2003 Alief Elsik High School graduate who died earlier this week in Iraq was a talented baseball player at the school.
Lance Cpl. Thomas J. Zapp, 20, died Monday in Iraq’s Anbar province, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.
Thomas F. Zapp said that his son, who had been a Marine since June 2003, had been in Iraq about six or seven weeks. Zapp said that while his son was apprehensive about going to Iraq, he believed in doing his duty.
“He just wanted to do what was right. To do his part as a Marine and be a good person,” Zapp said Wednesday at his Richmond-area home.
Zapp told the Houston Chronicle for its Thursday editions that his son was riding in a convoy when he was killed by an improvised explosive device.
Zapp last spoke with his son a little more than two weeks ago. “He said it was kind of rough, but everything was...