She responded similarly to the news that her son, Cpl. Clifton Blake Mounce, was killed Thursday in combat in Iraq. Mounce, 22, of Pontotoc, Miss., was assigned to a Camp Lejeune unit. He died when an explosive device struck his vehicle; another Marine was also killed in the blast.

"I did a lot of crying and begging, but after the initial shock I knew he was doing what he wanted to do," said Pat Mounce, who lives in Pontotoc.

Clifton Mounce was one of three N.C.-based Marines whose deaths the Department of Defense announced this week.

Mounce and Cpl. Christopher D. Winchester, 23, of Flomaton, Ala., were killed near Trebil, Iraq. A Camp Lejeune spokesman said the Marines were working to disrupt actions by insurgents along a supply route.

Winchester, who joined the Marine Corps in January 2003, was a radio operator. Mounce, who joined in April 2002, was an artillery cannonman. Both were assigned to 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune.

Pat Mounce said her son had worked at a furniture factory and a Wal-Mart distribution center, but after the terrorist attacks, he decided he wanted to do something good with his life and joined the Marines.

Mounce married his high school sweetheart, and their third anniversary would have been this Saturday. His mother said he had talked recently with his father, with her and with his wife.

"He said, 'Mama, don't forget about me,' " she recalled. "I told him I think about him every day."