22, of Boring, Ore.; assigned to 1st Law Enforcement Battalion, 1st Marine Headquarters Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; died May 24 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, while conducting combat operations.

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Marine killed in Afghanistan had July wedding set

The Associated Press

BORING, Ore. — A 22-year-old Oregon Marine who died in combat in Afghanistan earlier this week had been making plans for a July wedding.

Cpl. Keaton G. Coffey of Boring was killed Thursday in Helmand province, a Defense Department statement said.

Coffey was on his second tour in Afghanistan and planned to marry a woman he met through his mother, The Oregonian reported. Gifts had been registered at Bed, Bath & Beyond, and invitations had been sent, the newspaper said.

Coffey graduated from Damascus Christian School in 2007 and briefly attended George Fox University before joining the Marines.

His former principal, Tim Oakley, said he was polite, respectful and kind — “every parent’s dream.” Coffey wasn’t an “out front” leader at the school, but his fellow students liked him well enough that they elected him student body president during his senior year, Oakley said.

Linda Urbanowski, a history teacher at the school, said Coffey had gotten a tattoo in honor of one of his best friends from training camp who had died during his first tour.

“I know he grieved deeply,” she said. “I was going to see him soon, and he was going to show me that tattoo.”

Coffey’s father has spent more than 35 years at Portland Fire & Rescue. The younger Coffey had hoped to become a firefighter after he was done with the Marines, Urbanowski said.