News & Observer -- A Camp Lejeune-based Marine was killed in western Iraq Wednesday, his father said.

Pfc. Colin J. Wolfe, 18, of Manassas, Va., was on patrol in Habbaniyah in Anbar province when his truck rolled over an improvised bomb, his father, Mark Wolfe, said in a telephone interview Friday.

"He was a passenger in a truck, and basically it went off right underneath him," Wolfe said.

Colin Wolfe was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force. First Lt. Barry Edwards, a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, said Wolfe had joined the Marines in July 2005 and joined his unit in January.

Wolfe had a strong sense of patriotism, and the elite image of the Marine Corps had appealed to him when he was growing up, his father said. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, there was no question what he would do when he graduated from Osbourn High School last year.

Off duty, in many ways he was a typical 18-year-old Marine, his father said. "He liked to goof off, play video games, find some beer and girls."

Wolfe wasn't a typical Marine in at least one way: He was an expert ballet dancer with 15 years of study and several stage performances to his credit. His mother, Amy Wolfe, owns a ballet studio, and he had studied dance since he was 3 years old.

"Which I'm sure he tried to hide from the guys in his unit," his father said.

They might have appreciated one of his motivations, though: "Colin said that it was the best way in the world to meet girls," Mark Wolfe said.

He last spoke to his son about two weeks ago.

"It was the things you might expect -- I'm here, I'm OK, the food [stinks]," Wolfe said. "He also talked about how he trusted the Iraqi soldiers and how professional and how tough they were. The conditions were lousy, but he felt they were making a difference, that things were getting better there."

If there was one consolation, Mark Wolfe said, it was that Colin was doing exactly what he wanted to be doing when he was killed.

Colin's plans for the future were unclear. He had talked about joining one of the elite units in the Marines or Navy but also had gained the maturity he needed to attend college and was thinking about that, his father said.

Just before Colin enlisted, the family had visited France and the beaches where the Allies landed on D-Day. The military cemeteries there made a big impression on the soon-to-be Marine. His father said he's sure Colin would appreciate that he will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The family plans to establish a memorial fund in his name to support a community performing arts center that's being built at George Mason University's Prince William County campus.

Wolfe's survivors include his parents and his sister, Cecile, 15.