The clocks keep ticking down on Pamela Jones' MySpace page, counting the months (six), all the way down to the days, hours, minutes and seconds before her husband, Marine Lance Cpl. Derek W. Jones, was expected home.

On the page, the Kailua resident writes that she will be 21 in a couple of months, that their daughter will be 2 on Halloween, with a party planned at Chuck E. Cheese's, and that she is sad Derek would be in Iraq, but is expecting the time to go by fast.

"I will never stop loving you. You are the best husband and friend anyone could ever have. I love you with all my heart," she writes next to a picture with her husband, their heads touching.

But the upbeat information on the page is now accompanied by condolences from friends and a message from a widow to her fallen husband.

Derek Jones, a 21-year-old Hawai'i-based Marine from Salem, Ore., was killed Sunday. The Corps said he died during combat operations in western Iraq. He was one of two Kane'ohe Bay Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment to die in separate battles on Sunday.

On a message dated Tuesday, Pamela Jones wrote, "I have so much to say, but I don't even know where to begin. I can't even tell you how much I miss you and I wish you could come home to me and your beautiful baby girl that you barely got to know. She loves you so much, she talks about you all the time. She says 'night night Daddy, Daddy's sleeping.' I'm trying so very hard to understand why this happened."

Lance Cpl. Jeremy S. Sandvick Monroe, also 21, was felled by a sniper's bullet in Haditha, his father said yesterday.

Monte Monroe said he talked with his son just a few days before he was killed.

"He just said, 'There's a lot of stuff going on here, Dad. I've already been involved in some firefights and different things," Monte Monroe said by phone from Montana. "He said, 'It's really hot down here,' hot meaning a lot of action, and he said, 'If you don't hear from me, don't worry. It's when you hear from somebody else you need to worry.' "

HAWAI'I NOT IMMUNE

As U.S. military casualties have surged in Iraq in recent weeks, including 41 U.S. troops killed so far this month, Hawai'i continues to lose its share.

A Schofield Barracks soldier assigned to the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team was killed and two others were wounded Wednesday as a result of enemy action while conducting operations in Kirkuk province. The name of the deceased soldier was being withheld pending notification of family.

The wounded soldiers were transported to a coalition forces' hospital.

The soldier's death brings the total number of American troops who have died in October in Iraq to 41, The Associated Press reported.

As of yesterday, at least 2,757 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Five Hawai'i-based soldiers, two soldiers attached to Schofield units, and a State Department contractor working with Hawai'i troops have been killed in northern Iraq since Sept. 6.

Four Hawai'i Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, meanwhile, have died in combat since Sept. 26. About 1,000 Marines last month started a seven-month deployment to Iraq and more than 7,000 Schofield Barracks soldiers began a year of duty in the country just weeks before.

Reuters reported that Army Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the level of violence over the past few weeks has been the highest of the war. There are 141,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

The Hawai'i Marines are headquartered at Haditha Dam, northwest of Baghdad, but are spread throughout the "Triad" of Haditha, Haqlaniyah and Barwana near the Euphrates River and down to the Baghdadi-Jubbah-Dulab region.

FIERCE RESISTANCE

Western Iraq represents the Sunni Arab heartland and a region where resistance to U.S. forces remains strong.

The 2nd Battalion Marines relieved the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, also from Hawai'i, at a transfer of authority ceremony on Sept. 24 in Haditha. Since March, 14 Marines with the 3rd Battalion have been killed in Iraq.

Both Marines killed on Sunday had previously served in Afghanistan.

Monte Monroe said his son lost his bunkmate, 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Kevin B. Joyce, who died in June 2005 when the vehicle he was in tumbled off a cliffside road.

"It was hard," Monroe said of his son's time in Afghanistan. "Anytime you go somewhere and have people shooting at you, it's hard."

Jeremy joined the Marines out of high school about two years ago.

"Growing up, he was a very outstanding young man. He was real popular, and he believed in fighting for his country. The 9/11 thing was very disturbing for him and he wanted to do something to help," his father said.

The son had no misconceptions about what he might face in Iraq.

"He just told me he was going to one of probably the hottest spots in Iraq, and it was going to be real dangerous," Monte Monroe said.

His son's body will return to Montana today for burial.

Monroe said the war is about checking terrorism and Saddam Hussein is "an evil man."

"I just don't want anybody, other people going through this (type of loss). It's hard," he said.

Monroe said he believes in the soldiers and Marines in Iraq and "May God bless them all. We're behind them all, 100 percent. Make sure they know that."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.