Marine Master Sgt. John MacLean keeps hitting upon one word when he talks about Corporal Derek Wyatt.

"[He was a] special young man," MacLean says.

MacLean runs the ROTC program at Akron’s East High School and Wyatt, who graduated in 2004, was one of his first recruits – and a model one.

"You wouldn't realize that he was there, but he was there, because he was setting a great example for the other kids on doing what he was supposed to do. I never had to correct him or do anything like that...special young man, and it isn't just cause he passed away, this is Derek Wyatt right here," he says.

Wyatt was 25 and assigned to the Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, California. He was killed in fighting in Helmand province the day before his wife, and fellow Marine Kait, gave birth to their son.