MARINE SURVIVES IRAQ WAR, BUT KILLED IN VEHICLE CRASH 2ND SERVICEMAN INJURED ON WAY TO TWENTYNINE PALMS.

Byline: Brad A. Greenberg Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS - Marine Lance Cpl. Eric S. Freeman was in Baghdad when American military toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein, and he survived the assault on the restless Iraqi city of Fallujah in April.

But just one week before he was to be deployed for his third tour of duty, the 20-year-old Thousand Oaks man was killed when the sedan he was riding in overturned on Interstate 10 in Calimesa, then hit a tree.

``After two deployments, you get in your mind that he is untouchable. He can't die,'' said Tiara Wentworth, Freeman's girlfriend who spent Monday with his family in Thousand Oaks. ``And then to have him die in a car accident three hours after I say goodbye ... It's really strange.''

On a short leave from the military, Freeman was able to spend the holidays with his family. The Marine, based at Twentynine Palms, went with his family to Lake Tahoe for Christmas and spent New Year's Day at the Rose Parade.

Freeman and his friend Lance Cpl. Nathan Olig, 20, left Thousand Oaks for the base late Sunday.

At about 2:20 a.m. Monday, 117 miles from Thousand Oaks, Olig, who had been driving, dropped his drink and the car drifted off the freeway, CHP Officer Chris Blondon said. Olig overcorrected when he swung it back onto the road. The car flipped and slammed into a tree.

Both men wore seat belts, Blondon said, but the trauma caused by hitting the tree took Freeman's life.

Olig broke his collarbone and suffered a concussion. He was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center on Monday, and was surrounded by other members of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms.

Capt. Chad Walton, spokesman for the base, would not release any information Monday.

Olig was recovering well, a Marine said in the hospital's hallway. He was not ready to speak about the car crash.

``It's not his fault,'' Brenda Freeman, Eric's mother, said of Olig, who had been at her home Sunday. ``It could have happened to anybody.''

Broken is one way Brenda Freeman feels. As she spoke by phone, her voice quivered and ebbed.

``He was a good boy,'' she said of her son, one of five children. ``He was brave and honorable. And he had a good future ahead of him.''

Scott Freeman said his son first decided he would be a Marine at age 15. After graduating from The High School at Moorpark College, a program for gifted students who don't fit well in traditional schooling, Freeman began his service.

``He embodied ... the goals of the U.S. Marine Corps,'' said Taylor Gilbert, a teacher at the school. ``Loyalty, fidelity, honesty and integrity were the goals he strived to deal with.''

He was an infantryman regularly on the frontline of major battles, said Gilbert, who saw him last week. A bout in Fallujah earned him a Purple Heart. The wounds he suffered from an explosive device sidelined him only a few days.

His parents were scared every minute he spent overseas.

``But I was proud of him, too,'' his mother said.

Brad A. Greenberg, [phone]

brad.greenberg(at)sbsun.com

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LANCE CPL. ERIC S. FREEMAN