Family mourns death of Sparks lance corporal

Tom Gardner

Monday, April 14, 2003 | 11:49 a.m.

RENO -- On a day when seven families were rejoicing the safe release of their loved ones from Iraqi captivity, one Nevada family was mourning its loss.

Marine Lance Cpl. Donald John Cline -- one of the first people reported missing in Iraq -- was dead.

"I feel like I'm totally lost. I don't know where our future's going to be," his wife, Tina, said. "We had our future planned, me and John, and now I've got to focus on how I'm going to raise my two boys without John there."

She attended a brief memorial held for him on Sunday before Palm Sunday services at First Baptist Church Sparks in Spanish Springs, north of Reno.

Marine 1st Sgt. Jason Ruff, a casualty assurance officer who spoke at the memorial, said he was told Friday afternoon that Cline's identity was confirmed. He and another Marine were joined by Pastor Earl Morley from the church Tina Cline had begun attending to deliver the news and pray. Morley himself is a former Marine.

"All along, she had hoped for the best, as we all did, but it turned out to be not that good of news," Ruff said. "We showed up to support her, not that that takes any of the sting away."

She was joined at church by several family members, including her mother, her brother, her father and her stepfather.

"She's got all the family support she needs," Ruff said.

Cline, 21, of Sparks, had not been seen since March 23 when he and eight other Marines were reported missing in fighting on the outskirts of Nasiriyah. He also leaves two sons, Dakota, 2, and Dillon, 7 months.

Tina Cline told Dakota on Saturday his father was dead.

"He said, 'No, daddy's at work!' I said, 'No, daddy's not coming home. Daddy's dead,' and he goes, 'No, No!' "

Cline was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. His remains, along with those of perhaps three other Marines, were flown to Dover, Del., where the tests were performed.

"I was just caught on the fact that John just had remains left. They don't know what. There's basically pieces of him left," Tina Cline said.

Ruff said it's believed the Marines were headed toward the site where the 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in the attack in which Pfc. Jessica Lynch was wounded and taken captive and to which five of the soldiers released on Sunday were attached.

Cline is the second Nevadan killed in Iraq. The first was Marine 1st Lt. Fred Pokorney, a 1989 Tonopah High School graduate, who was killed in action March 23, the same day as Cline.

John and Tina Cline met while attending Reed High School in Sparks and married at the American Legion Hall in Sun Valley on Oct. 21, 2000 -- the day after he graduated from Marine boot camp.

"He always said he wanted to be a Marine. His whole senior year he was already signed up and ready," she said in an earlier interview with the Associated Press.

The family had been living together at Camp Lejeune, N.C., until Cline got his orders to ship out just after Christmas. Tina Cline and the boys have been living with her mother in Sun Valley just north of Reno.

The last time she talked to Cline was in March.

"He said a CNN reporter gave him his cell phone to call and he just wanted to call and see if everything was OK and how the boys were doing."

On March 27 she received a letter postmarked March 14 that included a hand-carved, 4-inch long wooden truck with the word, "Dakota" on the side.

"He sent a letter to Dakota saying he couldn't get to Kuwait City yet -- he felt guilty because he wanted to get something for his sons," she said earlier this month.

"So he and his friend took some Kuwaiti wood and carved this little Dodge Dakota truck because his name is Dakota and my son loves trucks."

She said her husband's remains would be flown to Reno to receive full military honors and a for funeral at the Baptist church.

"Shortly after the services, he'll be cremated. And then he's going to come home to me and the boys."