The Latest: Mom: Son killed in Iraq proud to be Navy SEAL

PHOENIX – The Latest on a U.S. Navy SEAL killed in a firefight in Iraq (all times local):

10:30 a.m.

The mother of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed during combat in Iraq says her son was proud to be a SEAL and wanted to be one since he was a young boy.

Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Keating IV was shot and killed Tuesday during a gunbattle involving Islamic State fighters.

Krista Joseph of Jacksonville, Florida, said in a statement Wednesday that her son wanted to serve his country and that he died doing what he loved.

She says “he was our golden boy with a million-dollar smile and a heart of gold.”

Keating was a grandson of Arizona financier Charles H. Keating Jr. and grew up in Phoenix, where he was a star distance runner in high school. Keating ran track and cross country at Indiana University.

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