Kurt E. Dechen

Saturday, August 05 2006 @ 05:07 PM EDT

Burlington Free Press -- A man from Springfield who joined the Marine Corps with his buddies fresh out of high school in 2001 was killed Thursday in Iraq, five months into his first tour of duty there.

Lance Cpl. Kurt E. Dechen, 24, died of wounds he received in combat in Anbar Province, a restive region west of Baghdad that includes Ramadi and is widely considered the most dangerous place in Iraq.

Dechen's mother, Dale, was informed Thursday about her son's death.

"He was a good kid," she said in a brief interview Friday. "Proud of being a Marine."

She declined to comment further, preferring to wait until she and her husband, Rich, meet with Marines today to discuss arrangements for their son.

Dechen is the 24th person with Vermont ties to be killed in combat in Iraq since the conflict began in March 2003. A soldier with the Vermont National Guard died of natural causes while training in Kuwait, and another Guardsman was killed in battle in Afghanistan.

Dechen also is the first Marine from Vermont to die overseas since Sgt. Jesse Strong, 24, of Albany was killed in a roadside attack in January 2005 in Haditha. Since then, seven Guardsmen and two other service members with Vermont connections lost their lives in battle.

Friday, people in Springfield, a town of about 9,000 on the Connecticut River in southern Windsor County, gathered to remember Dechen, the young Marine they described as a "sweet kid," a pleasure to be around, funny and a true native.

"He wasn't a Vermont hick, but he was a Vermonter," said April Coen, whose 23-year-old son, Pat, joined the Marines with Dechen. "He was just a sweet kid, kind of goofy sometimes. He made us laugh. He would just do crazy things, say crazy things. He was a riot and a half."

Dechen was a "macho guy" at Springfield High School and excelled as an athlete, competing in track and basketball, April Coen said. Best friends with Pat Coen, Dechen was a constant presence at the Coen home.

Both boys wanted to follow their fathers into military service, April Coen said. Pat Coen originally wanted to enlist in the Army, but Dechen kept pressing his friend in another direction.

"Kurt kept saying, 'We're going to do the Marine Corps. They're the way to go. They're the best of the best,'" April Coen said.

The pair graduated from high school in June 2001, and that November, Dechen got his wish: He and Pat Coen joined the Marines. They deferred their entry into the service, though, and went to boot camp in the summer of 2003, April Coen said.

They were assigned to different units, and Pat Coen went to war first, deployed to Iraq from August 2004 until the following February. He and Dechen then shared an apartment in Castleton, until Dechen was sent with his unit to Iraq in March, April Coen said.

Dechen was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, which was attached to Regimental Combat Team 5, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, Calif., according to a short news release from the Defense Department about Dechen's death.

A military spokesman said he could provide no details about how Dechen was killed.

April Coen learned of Dechen's death late Thursday in a phone call from Dale Dechen. The news was devastating. By Friday, family and friends were mixing smiles with tears as they remembered their loved one.

"They're reminiscing. They're laughing, which is a good thing," April Coen said. "They need to do that."

Still, life is certain to be different. Dechen was planning to stand beside Pat Coen as his best man during his big church wedding next year.

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