Local News
Adairsville soldier was to marry Dalton woman
The father and stepmother of fallen U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Seth Sharp spoke out about their son Sunday, saying he “put his whole heart into everything.”
Rick and Tiffany Sharp of Adairsville said their son Seth had always loved the military and wanted more than anything to serve.
“It was a challenge that he wanted to face and see if he could succeed at,” Rick Sharp said. “He was proud to be a Marine and be called a Marine.”
Seth Sharp, who played freshman football for Adairsville High School and enlisted with the Marines at the age of 17, had previously served a tour of duty in Iraq.
During his tour in Iraq, his father said, he asked for coloring books and crayons for Christmas.
“It wasn’t a moment later that he said it wasn’t for him — but for the children he’d met in Iraq,” Rick Sharp said. “Something that seems so simple here is a luxury for them, and I made sure the coloring books got to him. He was just that kind of kid.”
Seth Sharp also was a motorcycle enthusiast, his father said, and would often take his fiancee, Katie McMahon of Dalton, out for rides. Rick Sharp said the two were lifelong sweethearts and were planning to marry upon Seth’s return from Afghanistan.
“They were pushed around in baby strollers together, so it was like they were always meant to be together,” he said.
Sharp added his son also was a great lover of sports, enjoying everything from baseball to golf. But the family believes he showed his greatest courage not on the playing field but on the battlefield.
“He knew he would have the opportunity to be in harm’s way, but he never showed he was afraid,” said his stepmother Tiffany Sharp.
“He was a great kid, and he was a hero, and we want everyone to know the sacrifices he laid out his life for,” Rick Sharp said.
R. Dudley Barton & Son Funeral Home has charge of the arrangements, which are still in the planning stage.
Rick Sharp said his son had extended family from Arizona to Alaska, which makes funeral arrangements difficult for the moment. The family was informed Seth’s remains would be returned to Adairsville sometime within the next three to five days, he added.
The Sharps plan to hold the visitation and funeral services at Northpoint Church in Adairsville and to bury their son at East View Cemetery.
Seth Sharp was serving in Company E of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, when he was killed on July 2. He is the third local serviceman killed in action while serving in Afghanistan in recent weeks.
First Sgt. John Blair, 38, of Calhoun, died in Mado Zayi on June 20 during battle when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle. He was an Army National Guardsman assigned to the 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, based out of Lawrenceville. Graveside services took place Wednesday afternoon in Canton.
In early June, Jeffrey William Jordan, 21, of Cave Spring, who served with the Calhoun-based 108th Cavalry, was one of three soldiers from the Georgia National Guard unit killed in Afghanistan.
- Local News
-
-
Derby time
Owen Halman, 8, of Dalton, lines up his car “Fire Bullet” before a race during the Boy and Cub Scouts grand championship Pinewood Derby Saturday at First Presbyterian Church.
-
Helpin’ and paintin’
With his bracket busted and interest in the men’s college basketball tournament waning, Pierce Montgomery spent Saturday re-painting the Dalton home of a Vietnam veteran who couldn’t do the work himself.
-
DSC officials explain possible cuts
Dalton State College officials know the state budget cuts they planned for almost a month ago won’t be as deep as expected. What they don’t know is exactly which of the proposed cuts they’ll have to implement.
-
Higher education funding is at center of debate
More than 4,000 students, including several at Dalton State College, have banded together to push back against proposed state cuts to higher education funding.
-
Local officials view possible cuts at college with concern
Dalton State College plays a big part in plans by local leaders to grow and diversify the area’s economy, so they are viewing proposed cuts to the college with some concern.
-
Young couple awaits Habitat for Humanity home
Luis Sanchez knows how the Gutierrez family feels as they watch their house being built by the Dalton-Whitfield Habitat For Humanity.
-
Superintendent decision coming Monday night
The Richland 2 school board in Columbia, S.C., has chosen a superintendent — Whitfield County Schools superintendent Katie Brochu was one of three finalists — but won’t publicly say who it is until Monday, according to The State newspaper.
-
Area arrests for March 21
Recent arrests from the Whitfield and Murray County jail reports.
-
Marilyn Helms: Companies vary on correcting products, services
In the first half of my column on my Dalton State College quality management systems class quality “problems” project, I discussed the situations that companies did not resolve.
-
“Do You Remember?” cast announced
Members of Dalton Dance Company will perform in Dalton Arts Project’s “Do You Remember?” spring concert — a look back at the music they grew up with as well as the music enjoyed by previous generations of teenagers (now parents and grandparents).
- More Local News Headlines
-
