Fallen Chesapeake Marine stuck to his plan to serve his country

During the summer of 2008, the staff at Virginia Beach's Seton Youth Shelter got a call from a young man in need of help.

Something had gone wrong at home, Kielin T. Dunn told them, and he needed a place to stay. He wasn't a runaway, troublemaker or wayward teen, said David Mount, the shelter's director of street outreach programs. He had a plan: Graduate and join the Marine Corps. He just needed some help to get there.

So the shelter provided a bed, food and clothing. A few months later, in August 2008, Dunn graduated early from Chesapeake's Western Branch High School. The next day, he left for boot camp, Mount said.

But he kept in touch with the Seton Youth Shelter, visiting during holidays and calling in December to let his shelter family know he'd be deploying to Afghanistan.

Mount received another kind of call Friday night. Dunn, a 19-year-old lance corporal in the Marine Corps, had been killed Thursday during combat operations in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

"It was a blow," Mount said.

Dunn, originally from Chesapeake, had been a role model to the children and teens at the shelter, Mount said.

"He was an inspiration to the residents here," he said. "He inspired them and gave them hope that they could actually overcome their life challenges."

Mount described Dunn as intelligent, honest, driven and focused.

"He was a good person, and he was a straight arrow," he said. "That's a reflection of his family."

Mount said he could not disclose information about how Dunn became homeless but said he'd maintained a relationship with his family after enlisting. A phone call to his family's home was not returned Saturday.

Dunn was one of five Marines based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., who died in Afghanistan on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the Department of Defense. As of Friday, 907 members of the U.S. military have died there.

Little information has been made available about the circumstances surrounding Dunn's death. His battalion is involved in an

offensive operation in Marjah that began Feb. 13, said Lt. Col. Matthew Morgan, a Marine Corps spokesman. Marines have been working in the Taliban stronghold to break resistance, taking control of roads, markets and what appears to have been the local Taliban headquarters.

Dunn was part of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

"His ultimate sacrifice for the personal freedoms we have become accustomed to will forever be appreciated and remembered," Mount wrote in a statement. "He's a hero."

Pilot writer Patrick Wilson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com