Edward Garvin killed in combat operations

MALDEN, Mass. --A 19-year-old Marine from Malden was killed during combat in Iraq, the Pentagon said Friday.

Lance Cpl. Edward M. Garvin was killed Wednesday in the Al Anbar province during a combat operation. Also killed in the same operation was Marine Cpl. Benjamin S. Rosales, 20, of Houston, according to the Department of Defense.

Both were assigned to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Garvin was a 2005 graduate at Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School, where a moment of silence was observed Friday in his memory, said John X. Crowley, principal of the nearly 1,300-student school in Wakefield.

As a culinary arts student, Garvin was well known to school staff who eat in a student-run dining room, Crowley said.

"He was a nice, happy-go-lucky, easygoing kid," the principal said.

Garvin was among 10 seniors in the school's 2005 graduating class who planned to serve in the military, Crowley said. At a graduation ceremony, Garvin and the other nine stood up and led graduating seniors in singing, "God Bless America," Crowley said.

The school's flag will be lowered to half-staff when Garvin's body is returned from Iraq, Crowley said.

The school's superintendent, Patricia Cronin, told the Malden Evening News that Garvin "was very, very popular with the instructors and his fellow students."

"He spoke about going into the military his whole senior year," Cronin said.

U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, whose district includes Malden, issued a statement expressing sympathy for Garvin's wife, Melissa, and his family. Markey said Garvin was active in the community at the YWCA and with the Boy Scouts.

"His love for country drew him to service in the United States Marine Corps and he was proud to wear the uniform," he said.

Read the rest at the Boston Globe