Pfc. Daniel A. C. McGuire

Pfc. Daniel A. C. McGuire, 19, of Mashpee, Mass., died Aug. 14 while supporting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Family and friends said McGuire, an Eagle Scout and the oldest of four brothers, enlisted in the Marine Corps not long after he graduated from Mashpee High School in 2007. They said he was sent to Iraq in March and was to return to the U.S. in November. Janet Kraskouskas, McGuire's high school guidance counselor, told The Boston Globe he was popular and respected at school. Kraskouskas said she and some of his teachers encouraged McGuire to go to college instead of enlisting right away. She said he was accepted for college, but his dream was to go into the military. "He was steadfast," she told the Globe. "He had a deep commitment to serving his country, and was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice." The Rev. Thomas Crumb, his longtime pastor at Christ Chapel in Centerville, told the newspaper McGuire also was deeply committed to his religious faith. "Dan believed deeply in the cause for which he was fighting," Crumb said. "He died doing what he believed in, what he believed God had created him to do and called him to do." ==Another news story== MASHPEE — A prayer book lies open on the McGuires' coffee table. The oversized American flag outside the Katian Way house is at half staff. Pfc. Daniel McGuire, a 2007 Mashpee High School graduate, was killed Thursday in Fallujah, Iraq, when his post was attacked by enemy forces. He was 19. McGuire began his military training two months after finishing high school. He was deployed for the first time in April. "His desire to be a Marine went beyond blowing things up and being a warrior," Mark McGuire said of his son Friday. "He loves this country and everything that it stands for."