FRIENDSWOOD — “Everything happens for a reason.”

That was the philosophy of Lance Cpl. Wesley J. Canning, a 21-year-old Friendswood Marine who died in Iraq last week.

That philosophy was listed in his high school yearbook, where Canning is pictured in a tie with a slight smile, an innocent-looking boy with short blond hair cut close to the scalp.

His mother, Jo Canning, said the family was not ready to talk to the news media about her son yet.

She would say only this: “He was the sweetest person you ever cared to meet.”

Others who knew Canning agreed.

“He was such a nice young man, very polite,” said Vicki Hartzell, who taught Canning English and journalism at Friendswood High School.

Flags at the school were at half-staff Monday. Principal Myrlene Kennedy said many who knew Canning had called or come in to talk to counselors about their friend.

“We want them to know that these are not just numbers they hear, that these are young men and women that are serving in some dangerous areas,” she said. “This will be tough on all of us.”

Canning is the third known resident of Galveston County to die in Iraq. Army Pfc. Ray Joseph Hutchinson, born in Houston and raised in League City, was killed in December in the northern city of Mosul. He was 20. Marine Staff Sgt. Phillip Jordan, 42, was killed in March.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Defense, Canning died Wednesday in Al Anbar Province as a result of enemy action.

He was part of an amphibious assault battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Canning’s mother said she did not know when the family would have a funeral service for her son.

A junior varsity football player, Canning worked part time as a checker at Albertson’s drugstore and was active in DECA, a marketing, management and entrepreneurship club. He had a younger brother and sister. His mother and father, Joe, live in Friendswood.

According to his yearbook, Canning’s goal in life was to “go to the Marine Corps, retire after 20 years and get into the criminal justice department.”