The military is investigating the death of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Sean P. Neal, 19, of Riverside, California.
A Department of Defense announcement states he was killed on Oct. 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, in a "non-combat related incident."
According to Neal's Facebook page, he lived in Twentynine Palms, and was a graduate of La Sierra High School in Riverside.
The Washington Examiner reports Neal is the first member of the U.S. military to die in Iraq since 2011.
Neal was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force - Crisis Response - Central Command, whose headquarters element deploys from Camp Pendleton, California.
As Home Post reported earlier this month, the task force of which Neal was a member is the second such unit created in the wake of the Sep. 11, 2012 attack of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
The first Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response Command is based at Morón Air Base in Spain.
These two units give the military the capability to immediately react to an international crisis that puts American personnel in harm's way...
...including conducting non-combatant evacuation, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and support to U.S. embassies, and other operations, missions and activities as directed by national and command leadership.
