Las Cruces Sun-News -- ALBUQUERQUE — A southern New Mexico family is mourning the death of a 20-year-old Marine who was killed this week while serving in Iraq.

The family of Lance Cpl. Steven M. Chavez, who grew up in the Hondo Valley, said Thursday they had learned from military officials that the Marine died the day before in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

The U.S. Department of Defense has not confirmed Chavez's death, and details of how he died remain unclear.

Eddie Chavez, the Marine's father, told the Albuquerque Journal that he had talked to his son about 15 hours before learning of his death. He said the younger Chavez had just another week in the field and he was coming home.

"He said, 'Dad, do you have my fishing rod ready?"' Eddie Chavez recalled of the Wednesday morning phone call. "I said, 'I'll get it ready, and we'll go."'

Chavez was a gunner with what his father called the 2-4 Marine Division. He joined the Marines after graduating from Hondo High School in 2005.

Chavez loved the outdoors and participated in track, basketball and six-man football while at Hondo, his father said.

Since he was a boy, Chavez told his father he wanted to be a soldier — like his father, who