PAHRUMP, NV (FOX5) -
Cpl. Jon-Luke Bateman was a U.S. Marine stationed in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan.
On Sunday, the 22-year-old was reportedly working with another soldier to repair a generator when something went wrong. Bateman came to the aid of a 20-year-old lance corporal, but both were electrocuted and killed.
Tuesday, Bateman's remains landed at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. According to the family, Bateman's body is on it's way to Pahrump.
Bateman graduated from Pahrump Valley High School in 2007.
His parents recently moved to Arkansas, but a neighbor near the family's former home remembers Bateman.
"He was very polite, just a wonderful human being," says Susan Shawgo.
She tells FOX5 Bateman also attended a local church. "I'm pretty sure I saw him in there quite a few times and he helped out with young kids."
Longtime Pahrump residents Walter Jametski and Carl Shock are both military veterans. While Bateman's death wasn't on the front lines, both say it hurts the community just as much.
"As long as he was serving his country, he was over there where he could have been put into combat," says Shock, who served with the Army in the Korean War.
"It's sad, it's a shame, probably not the only one and probably won't be the last one," says Jametski, a Vietnam vet.
Bateman was part of the Marine Expeditionary Force based out of Camp Pendleton, CA.
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