PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A female Marine from Cranston who died in a suicide bombing attack in Iraq was remembered Saturday as a popular high school cheerleader who was “always ready to help anyone out.”

Lance Cpl. Holly A. Charette, 21, died Thursday after a vehicle carrying explosives struck her vehicle in Fallujah, the Defense Department said.

“She wanted to become a Marine after 9-11,” Charlene Wheetman, Charette’s aunt, said Saturday in a statement on behalf of the family. “She wanted to do something for her country. She was a very proud Marine.”

Jaime Caniglia said didn’t know her former teammate on the Cranston High School East hockey cheerleading squad was serving in Iraq until she saw Charette’s photo in a newspaper Saturday.

“She was an awesome, awesome girl,” said Caniglia, who also worked with Charette at a CVS store. “I can definitely see her (joining the Marines). She was always ready to help anyone out.”

Gov. Don Carcieri on Saturday ordered state flags lowered in honor of Charette.

A suicide bomber struck Charette’s convoy as she and a group of Marines returned to their base Thursday.

At least four Marines, including Charette, were killed and 11 of the 13 injured troops were women, the Pentagon said Saturday.

Al-Qaida in Iraq said it carried out the fatal ambush.

“Holly was a happy girl and loved by all of us and everyone that she knew,” Wheetman said. “Holly always looked at the positive side of everything. We are all missing a part of our hearts without her here.”

Rhode Island state flags will fly at half-staff until Charette’s internment, Carcieri said in a statement.

“My wife Sue and I want to offer our thoughts and prayers to the friends and family of Holly Charette,” the governor said.

“Her sacrifice represents the best Rhode Island has to offer,” Carcieri said. “We can never forget the courage and conviction of those like Holly Charette, who risk their lives in service to their country.”

U.S. Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., also released a statement expressing “profound sorrow” over Charette’s death.

“As a soldier in Iraq and Rhode Island citizen she served with dignity and honor,” Langevin said. “I join the people of Rhode Island in mourning this great loss.”

Charette, a 2001 graduate of Cranston High School East, was based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

Charette had recently deployed to Al Anbar Province in Iraq from Camp Lejeune, where she worked delivering mail, according to a story from early last month posted on the Marine Corps official Web site.

Charette is at least the seventh Rhode Island resident to die in Iraq and was the second military woman with ties to the state to be killed.

Army CWO5 Sharon T. Swartworth, 43, a graduate of a Warwick high school, was killed in a helicopter crash in 2003 in Iraq. She was living in Virginia with her husband and 8-year-old son.

AP-ES-06-25-05 1832EDT