Marine Killed in Baghdad Was Determined, Compassionate

A newspaper correspondent wrote that even in the severe test of combat, Zembiec maintained a strict sense of right and wrong. "People in combat are under a lot of stress and pressure," the reporter quoted Zembiec as saying. "But that is never an excuse for unlawful conduct."

In 2005, he was quoted on the importance of the mission in Iraq and of seeing it through.

"Isolationism does not work," he said. "We need to bring some kind of stability over there. We need to stay the course."

At La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, Zembiec "was probably the toughest kid . . . that I've ever coached," Ron Owen said.

He was, Owen said, "a totally unique individual who would give you everything he had." If he had to "pick somebody to go to war with," the coach said, "it would have been Doug. Just a super, super kind of guy" who would "put himself out there on the line before he'd ask you."

Annapolis was not that easy for him, Zembiec once told an Albuquerque newspaper, referring to the classwork.

"It just about killed me," he said. "But I was never gonna give up."

In addition to his parents, who live in Albuquerque, survivors include his wife, Pamela, whom he married in 2005, and their year-old daughter.

"It's such a loss for our country," Ripley said, but "he was doing what he loved. Exactly what he loved to do."