They set his path into the military. But instead of choosing the Army or Navy recruiters, as his cousins had, Van Leuven signed with the Marines.

"He liked challenges," said his mother, Christine Dybevik.

Lance Cpl. Van Leuven was serving his second tour in Iraq when he was killed by enemy action in Anbar province.

The 20-year-old died April 17 with three other Marines from his 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment from Twentynine Palms, attached to Camp Pendleton's 1st Marine Division.

Van Leuven was an athlete, playing baseball since he was tall enough to whack a T-ball stand. He pitched for Mazama High's team for three years and was on the school's football, track and wrestling squads.

Off the sports field, he loved hunting and fly-fishing in Oregon's roaring rivers.

"He was kind of hard to keep up with sometimes," his mother said.

But he had brothers for that – four of them, and he was in the middle. He is also survived by two sisters and his father, Todd Van Leuven.

The Marines seemed to take the headstrong teenager and turn him into a young man. After boot camp, Van Leuven returned to the high school where he had sometimes challenged authority.

"I think he just came back to say thank you to his teachers," Principal Dennis Szal said. "You could tell he had an awful lot of pride in wearing that uniform."

And he found a new focus. After meeting a Chino Hills woman at a Marine Corps ball, Van Leuven called his mother to say he'd found someone who was more than a "10." In fact, he called her a "20," Dybevik said.

The couple came to Oregon for Christmas last year, and Van Leuven told his family of his intention to attend college after the Marines and become a schoolteacher. He wanted to marry and have "lots of babies," his mother said.

His family buried their son in a flag-draped coffin April 28 in Coos Bay, Ore. Gov. Ted Kulongoski spoke at the service, and flags flew at half-staff at Klamath Falls schools.