Nicole Miller, 21, was one of 40 passengers and crew members who died on United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed into an abandoned strip mine near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, as four hijackers steered it toward Washington.

"I think about Nicole a lot while I'm here," Brown said Monday as Marines prepared for a conflict that seemed imminent.

"It's definitely a motivating factor while I'm here, and it does make me want to get to Iraq that much more."

Brown, 22, of San Jose, California, arrived in Kuwait three weeks ago with his reserve unit, the Second Battalion, 23rd Marines.

The battalion's troops are among some 50,000 Marines in the 300,000-strong buildup of US and British troops in the region around Iraq.

Brown and his comrades huddled around radios in their tents to hear US Secretary of State Colin Powell announce Washington's decision to abandon efforts to seek UN approval for an attack, indicating the United States and its allies would act alone.

They grinned when Powell said President George W. Bush was later to give Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to leave power.

"That means we're going home," said Major Jeff Williamson of Lodi, California, a company commander in the battalion.

The battalion has been on active duty since February 2002, five months after the event which changed Brown's life.

He and Miller, a college student, were visiting Brown's relatives in New Jersey, and had to return to California on separate flights. The two were high-school sweethearts and planned to marry once Miller graduated from college.

Brown remembers seeing the burning World Trade Center's twin towers from the window of his plane as it left the Newark, New Jersey, airport shortly before Miller's.

"Nobody really thought anything of it at the time," he said.

Brown said he began to worry when his flight was diverted to Canada as US authorities ordered all planes in the air to land. After a series of frantic phone calls, Brown learned Miller was dead from her mother.

"That was when I broke down," he said.

Brown, who joined the Marines in 1998, said he still thinks of Miller as he prepares to fight Iraq -- the latest target in Washington's declared global war on terrorism. Tattoed on his arm are the initials NCM and a large cross, another reminder of what he lost.

He said however that he would be fighting regardless of whether his life had been touched by terror. As a team leader, responsible for the lives of several other Marines, Brown said he is motivated by professionalism, not revenge.

"I can't let what happened to Nicole make me lose focus," he said.

WAR.WIRE