Marine Sgt. Michael Tayaotao, 27, Sunnyvale; killed in combat in Iraq

Known as unflappable, unselfish and with a big laugh, Marine Sgt. Michael Tayaotao died in August doing a job for which he had volunteered: defusing bombs while on his third tour of duty in Iraq.

Tayaotao, 27, of Sunnyvale, Calif., grew up near San Diego and joined the Marine Corps straight out of high school in 1998.

In the language of the military, Tayaotao was an explosive ordnance disposal technician, a job that he sought because of the challenge and the risk.

“He did the training, and he found that he liked it because it was more challenging,” said his mother, Heidi Tayaotao of Ridgecrest. “He knew it was risky -- but that’s what he liked.”

Tayaotao was assigned to the 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton.

He was killed in combat Aug. 9 in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, according to the Defense Department, which did not provide other details on his death.

His mother, however, said the military told the family that her son was defusing bombs to clear the way for a military convoy when he died.

“My understanding is that he was able to clear all of them until there was only one left, and then something happened,” she said.

Cpl. Ben Eberle, a Marine spokesman at Camp Pendleton, said such jobs are strictly volunteer. “You can’t just come into the Marine Corps and have that job,” he said. “You move into that job after serving in another field.”

Tayaotao was born in San Diego and grew up in nearby Poway. His father, Mario, of Sunnyvale, was in the Navy.

Tayaotao moved to Ridgecrest when he was a teenager and later to San Jose, where he attended high school.

His uncle, Felix Tayaotao of Sunnyvale, remembered him as a “straightforward guy.”

“From the time he was a child, he wanted to join the military,” his uncle said. “He was telling me before he left that, if he came back from Iraq, he was going to help us fix up the house and then go to college.”

One of Tayaotao’s true loves, his family and friends said, was the outdoors -- especially camping, fishing, hunting and shooting.

“He was one of those guys who you couldn’t make mad,” said Oliver Panacio, whose father, Frank, was Tayaotao’s godfather. “He was a very hands-on person, and he loved going outdoors to fish and hunt. I would show him how to fish; he’d show me how to shoot. He never meant any harm to anyone -- from what I can tell, he would help anyone around him.”

Tony Siack, another relative, recalled immigrating to the United States from the Philippines in the early 1980s and meeting Tayaotao as a youngster after moving in with the family.

He said Tayaotao was gregarious -- inviting Siack to share his room -- and always fun to be around.

Siack, who joined the Navy and today is a master chief petty officer at the White House, recalls seeing Tayaotao at a Christmas party in San Diego last year.

“I think he told me that he had just gotten back from a deployment and was about to go again,” Siack said. “At first I thought he’d be scared; I know I would be. He was so confident that he was going to come back alive.

“I was surprised he went into the military -- having a parent in the military, I thought he would choose a different path. So when I found out Michael was joining the military, I thought ‘Good for him.’ ”

Siack escorted Tayaotao’s body back home to California from Dover, Del.

Among the commendations earned by Tayaotao were the Air Medal, Presidential Unit Commendation and Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal.

His mother said that he had no regrets about joining the military -- even though he spent much of the last three years in Iraq. It was what he wanted to do. “He was such a fun-loving kid,” she said.

Tayaotao was buried at Dearborn Memorial Park Cemetery in Poway.

In addition to his parents, he is survived by a sister, Leah, of Santa Monica.

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steve.hymon@latimes.com