The body of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed during combat in Iraq is returning to the United States.
Slain Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Keating IV will arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware sometime Friday, SEALs spokeswoman Lt. Beth Teach told The Associated Press.
Keating's remains will be returned to San Diego next week, Teach said. Keating lived in Coronado with his wife, Brooke, and her family. The two married before he deployed, the family told NBC 7.
His mother, Krista Keating-Joseph, told NBC 7 San Diego her son wished to be buried as close as possible to Coronado Amphibious Naval Base. Keating wanted to be near his beloved SEAL Team One, she said, instead of in Arlington National Cemetery.
Funeral services are planned for May 12, according to Keating-Joseph.
Keating, 31, died Tuesday about 14 miles north of Mosul in a complicated attack launched by 125 ISIS fighters, Pentagon officials said. He was part of a small force sent to fend off the attack.
Keating-Joseph said her son was mortally wounded by a bullet that slipped under his body armor.
A grandson of an Arizona financier involved in the 1980s savings and loan scandal, Keating is the third U.S. service member to be killed in combat in Iraq since U.S. forces returned there in 2014.
