ANOTHER BROTHER DIES IN IRAQ. HOW MANY MORE?

Why?

For What?

From the time he was a teenage JROTC student at Forest Park High School in Baltimore, Staff Sgt. Jay Martin seemed to be moving toward a career in the Army.

He was athletic, competing on his high school's swim and track teams. He set his sights on college, and for a brief time he attended school in Florida. But he soon enlisted in the Army, said an aunt. He had served for nearly a decade before he died Sunday in Baghdad. He was 29.

An improvised explosive device detonated while his unit was conducting combat operations, the Defense Department announced yesterday morning. He left behind a close-knit and loving family, including a father and four half sisters, said the aunt, Lori Martin-Graham. His mother died when he was child.

"We've been crying and praying. God took one of the best," she said. "I helped to raise him. He's my angel. "