Pennsylvania Live -- GREENVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A Marine from Mercer County was killed when a bomb in a suicide vehicle exploded during combat in Hadithah, Iraq. 

Sgt. Michael A. Marzano, 28, of Greenville, about 70 miles north of Pittsburgh near the Ohio border, was killed Saturday, the Defense Department announced Monday.

"He's wanted to go into the Marines since I can remember," said his father, Albert Marzano of Greenville, also a Marine Corps veteran, who served in Vietnam in 1969.

Michael Marzano graduated from Sharon High School in 1995, but was refused admission by the Marines because he tore a knee ligament in a high school wrestling tournament his senior year, his father said. Marzano had surgery and kept reapplying to the Marines until he was accepted in 1999. He served on active duty until 2003.

In the reserves since, Marzano volunteered to go to Iraq and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment of the 4th Marine Division. Marzano's company was based in Phoenix and he went to Iraq in February, his father said.

Marzano won several amateur boxing titles in Youngstown and Cleveland, Ohio in recent years, his father said, competing as a heavyweight and light heavyweight. But he was gentle outside the ring, and the Marines remained his passion.

"Anyone who ever met him that I know of was just amazed at his politeness, his manner, such a great personality he had," Albert Marzano said. "He was really, really proud of being a Marine. He was really gung ho. It's what he wanted to do."

The Loutzenhiser-Jordan Funeral Home in Greenville is handling funeral arrangements, which will await the return of Marzano's remains later this week, his father said.