South Carolina state trooper killed in Iraq

ASSOCIATED PRESS

FLORENCE — Staff Sgt. Jerome Lemon, a South Carolina state trooper, has died in the war in Iraq, family and friends said Thursday.

Lemon, 42, was a convoy commander with the Kingstree-based 1052 Transportation Company of the Army National Guard. He was killed when his convoy was ambushed Wednesday morning.

Lemon’s brother, Society Hill Police Chief Charles Lemon, also is serving in Iraq. He is expected to return home this weekend to be with his family in the Pee Dee.

‘‘I think Jerome was definitely the type of person who, when his time did come, would not have thought of a better way to go,’’ said Highway Patrol 1st Sgt. Greg Caulder, who graduated with Lemon from the patrol academy in 1990. ‘‘He died doing what he loved to do.”