MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – A Marine less than two months into his deployment was killed Tuesday in Iraq, family members said.

Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan McCaughn, 19, was a 2005 graduate of Central High School. Relatives were still waiting for details about how he died.

“I just can’t believe it,” his mother, Nicole Cote, of Manchester told unionleader.com. “It’s not supposed to happen this way. Your kids aren’t supposed to leave you.”

McCaughn was born in North Carolina and lived there and in Missouri before his family moved to New Hampshire about 10 years ago.

Cote said her son joined the Marines during his senior year of high school.

“He said he needed to do this,” Cote said. “He said if he could keep one dad from going to Iraq and he could take his place instead, then hell feel like he’s accomplished something.”

Teachers said that joining the military had long been a dream of McCaughn’s.

“He would talk about it every day,” teacher Rebecca Spiro told WMUR-TV. “You could see the excitement in his eyes. We kept journals, and he would write about it all the time.”

Spiro said that the last time she saw McCaughn, he was visiting the school in his uniform.

“He stopped in to say hello, and for a minute, I didn’t recognize him,” she said. “He had grown up in the short time he’d been away.”

Amy Pennington, who taught McCaughn creative writing, said he talked about how being in the Marines “was changing him and making him a better person.”

“You had to become close to Ryan,” teacher Susanne Winters said. “He was one of those students who challenged everything, questioned everything. He had an incredible passion. He wanted to learn.”

McCaughn leaves behind his father, stepfather and two brothers.