THANK YOU ADAM

For as long as anyone can remember, Lance Cpl. Adam Lucas wanted to be a soldier. On Friday in Iraq, the 20-year-old died a Marine.
Lucas, 20, lost his life in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, half a world away from his fiancee in Virginia and his 1997 Dodge Ram 4x4, which was parked in his parents' Greensboro driveway. The Department of Defense wrote that he died somewhere in the province "while conducting combat operations against enemy forces."

"He loved it," his father, Kevin, said Saturday. "He thought he was doing what he needed to do and thought he was doing a job that needed to be done."

Lucas had been preparing for the job since he was a boy playing war.

He eventually ditched his plastic pistols for the uniform and the rigor of the high school Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. In that setting, he distinguished himself as eager and polite.

"He was always willing to pitch in and help," said Erwin McClendon, his commander at Northwest Guilford High School. "He looked forward to going into the Marines."

Lucas joined the service in July 2004, a few weeks after his graduation. He became a member of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines based in Camp Lejeune. This spring, he went to Iraq, his family said.

Lucas hoped to return to North Carolina in the fall. And, in 2007, he planned to be a groom.