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Marine corporal dies in combat in Afghanistan

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Leticia Gomez knows she was an overprotective mother.

She pulled her sons out of soccer because she feared they would get hurt. She wouldn’t let them go to friends’ houses until she had met the parents.

So when her oldest, Anthony Servin, said he wanted to enlist in the Marine Corps, Gomez desperately tried to dissuade him. Watching him drive off in the recruiter’s car was one of the hardest things she had ever done, she said.

“But nothing can compare to losing him,” Gomez said. “Nothing can compare to losing my son.”

Servin, 22, of Moreno Valley, died last month during combat operations in Afghanistan. The Department of Defense is investigating the death of the corporal. He was buried at Riverside National Cemetery.

Juan Servin, 21, followed his older brother into the Marines and is based in North Carolina.

Anthony Servin joined the Marines in 2008 after graduating from Canyon Springs High School. He spent his first few years in Japan before transferring to Camp Pendleton, where he specialized in communications. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

He first deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and left for his second deployment in March. He died June 8.

Servin loved being a Marine, his brother said. “He was really proud of it,” he said. “It was that sense of pride and honor.”

Friends and relatives remembered Servin’s smile, which earned him the nickname “Colgate.”

“He was always smiling,” said his girlfriend, Ashley Catano. “That’s what everybody misses the most — his smile.”

Everybody came to Servin for advice, and he always put others before himself, Catano said. And like his mother, she said, Servin was protective — of his fellow Marines, his family and her.

Catano and Servin had been dating for about a year and a half and were making plans for the future, she said. He planned to eventually leave the military and become a police officer, she said.

His death “has been hard to accept,” Catano said. “We had so many plans.”

Gomez still doesn’t understand why both her sons decided to join the military. She feels angry that her son’s life was cut short and is heartbroken that she wasn’t able to keep him safe. Now she worries about her youngest.

Gomez doesn’t want him to return to combat. But Juan Servin said he feels even more committed.

“I know my brother,” he said. “I know that he wouldn’t want me to quit.”

Gomez said that growing up, both Anthony and Juan tried to get her to “back off a little bit” and stop worrying so much.

“As a mom, you can’t,” she said. “I just wanted to protect them.”

anna.gorman@latimes.com

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