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Officer with 24th MEU dies in Afghanistan

WOODLYN, N.J. — When 1st Lt. Jason Mann joined the Marines 11 years ago, his mom, Alfina, was nervous.

It was what he wanted, though, and she decided she had to let go.

“Jason wanted to make something of himself, and he felt becoming a Marine was the ultimate thing he could do,” Alfina Mann recalled Sunday inside her family’s home.

Then, last week, Mann got the news she’d dreaded for more than a decade: The 6-foot-tall, blue-eyed husband, son and father with the infectious smile was killed while serving in Afghanistan.

Mann, 29, died Thursday in a non-hostile incident, Defense Department officials said. He was a member of 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, which was deployed with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Mann said she was stunned when two Marines arrived at her home to notify her early Thursday morning.

“I just started to shake. All I could say was, “Not my Jason,’” Mann said, running her fingers over several snapshots of Lt. Mann, his wife, Shannon Mann, and the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Isabella.

William Mann, Jason’s brother, said the Marine died when the roof of a building collapsed on him in Helmand province. Mann said engineers were working on the roof at the time of the collapse and may have been unaware that his brother was inside.

Lt. Mann — described as a shy, chubby high schooler — found himself in the military, his brother said.

“It was a complete transformation,” said William Mann, himself an Iraq veteran.

Mann enlisted in 1997 and became an officer in 2005. It was his second deployment in the last two years, following a stint in Iraq from September 2006 to May 2007. He left for Afghanistan in March and was due home in the fall.

Family members last spoke with Mann on July 6. Alfina Mann said every conversation she had with her son ended the same way: “Please son, I love you so much. Please be safe.”

Mann is also survived by his father, Orville; a sister, Jennifer Cleaver; and three stepsiblings.

Burial is set for Friday at Quantico National Cemetery in Virginia. Mann’s family hopes to hold a memorial service in New Jersey in the coming weeks.

Mann is the first casualty in the 24th MEU announced since Defense Department officials said July 3 that the unit’s stay in Afghanistan would be extended by 30 days, until early November. There are about 2,200 members in the unit.