TEMPLE, Texas- A Marine from Temple has been killed in Iraq, the Defense Department said Thursday.

Several Texas service members have been killed in that province, which includes the insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi, since U.S. soldiers and Marines began an offensive earlier this month to take control of those cities.

Lance Cpl. William L. Miller, 22, of Pearland, died there Monday.

His mother, Susie Miller, said he was a high school sophomore when he decided he wanted to join the Marines.

"He was proud of what the Marines stood for," she said in Thursday's edition of the Houston Chronicle. "He thought freedom was something you had to fight for."

William Miller was scheduled to leave Iraq in March and complete his military commitment in May, said his sister, Sabrina Blankenship. He wanted to go to college to study psychology or psychiatry.

His family said beneath his spicy personality was a young man who wasn't afraid to show his love.

"He cared," his mother said. "He always wanted to help people. ... He was affectionate when he was a child. He would crawl right up into my lap and hug me and kiss me for no apparent reason."

Miller was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Miller, William Lewis, LCpl