ABQjournal: N.M. Marine Killed in Iraq:
LAS CRUCES— Marine Lance Cpl. Steven Chavez, 20, died in Iraq doing what he had dreamed of since his childhood— being a soldier, his father said Thursday.
Steven Chavez's family in the Hondo Valley of south-central New Mexico was informed of the Marine's death about 8 p.m. Wednesday, about 15 hours after his last phone call home.
His father, Eddie Chavez, said his son shipped out of Camp Pendleton in California in September and arrived in Kuwait in November, shortly before traveling to a base in Ramadi, Iraq.
Steven Chavez "only had one more week out, and then he was coming back," his father said in a telephone interview.
"He said, 'Dad, do you have my fishing rod ready?' '' Eddie Chavez recalled of the 5 a.m. call from his son Wednesday morning. "I said, 'I'll get it ready, and we'll go.' ''
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