"He told us to stop sending packages and letters because he was going to cycle out in September," said Jack Collins, Jonathan's father.

Sunday afternoon, Jack and his wife, Angel, learned their 19-year-old son, who was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force, died as a result of small arms fire during combat patrol in Ar Ramadi in the Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He told his family he'd be back at Camp Pendleton, Calif., sometime mid-September.

Collins is the 932nd member of the U.S. armed forces to die supporting U.S.-led operations in Iraq. He is the 35th from Illinois. He's the second from McHenry County to die, the first being Army Pfc. Collier E. Barcus, 21, of McHenry in a hostile attack on July 8.

On Monday, family members and friends gathered at Collins' Crystal Lake home to remember the 2003 Crystal Lake South High School graduate, who was inspired to join the military after watching the movie "Top Gun" as a boy.

"When we were younger, we'd watch Top Gun two times a day for three years," said Collins' 21-year-old brother, Brandon. "We loved the face masks, the helmets, the planes. We could recite every line."

The brothers also loved to play games outside like capture the flag, and spray each other with water guns in order to steal each other's flags.

"I always knew he'd join," Brandon said of his brother, who played soccer and swam during high school. "He loved smearing mud on his face."

He also knew how to entertain a crowd, said his sisters, Lauren, 15, and Devon, 12. One of their favorite memories was when he wore a skirt with too-small flip flops to school for Opposite Sex Day and sported an Afro wig and bell-bottoms for '70s Day at Crystal Lake South High School.

"When he baby-sat us, he'd put on puppet shows with our stuffed animals and make us chocolate shakes," Lauren said, as she began to cry.

For Jonathan's high school graduation party, his parents also considered it a going-away party as well. They had the party on a Saturday, and the next day he left for boot camp. He arrived in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, in March.

"He loved it," Devon said. "On his cell phone, his message said, ‘This is Jonathan,' and then you'd hear, ‘Click Click,' and he'd say, ‘That's my gun.'æ"

Jonathan's grandmother, Alice Collins of Oak Lawn, wasn't too happy to hear that her grandson chose to join the armed forces. Her only brother, Bill Halpin, died during the Vietnam War.

"I begged him not to go," said Alice Collins, whose column in a South Side-based newspaper that asked for donations of Kleenex, suntan lotion and other items to be sent overseas resulted in more than 4,000 pounds of gifts being shipped overseas to soldiers. "But he said, ‘Gram, I know it's what I want,' and nobody could convince him otherwise."

Jonathan was planning to use the money he'd earn during his military service to go to college and become a police officer, his father said.

Monday night, dozens were expected to turn out during a candlelight vigil to remember Jonathan at Crystal Lake South High School. His body will be returned to the United States this week, and a funeral Mass also will take place this week at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church.

"They'll prepare his body this week," Jack said, standing in front of the family's home where, inside, a candle burned next to his son's military portrait. "And then he'll come home."

Marine: Man wanted to become a police officer