Associated Press - May 1, 2009 5:24 PM ET

FREETOWN, Mass. (AP) - A 22-year-old Navy SEAL from southeastern Massachusetts has been killed in Iraq.

The Defense Department said Friday that Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler J. Trahan of Freetown died Thursday during combat operations in Fallujah. He was assigned to a bomb disposal unit in Norfolk, Va., and was deployed with an East Coast based-Navy SEAL team.

Trahan was a 2004 graduate of Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School. He had attended the Massachusetts Maritime Academy before joining the Navy in 2006.

His father, Jean-Pierre Trahan, tells The Standard-Times of New Bedford that his son always wanted to serve his country and was the third generation of his family in the military.

His teachers remember Trahan as a committed student and athlete. He played football and was a member of the National Honor Society.

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