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Corps identifies Marine killed in Afghanistan

A Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based Marine was killed Sunday during combat operations in Afghanistan’s Northern Helmand province, according to a base press release.

Cpl. Travis M. Woods, 21, of Redding, Calif., was a field wireman with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, the release said.

Woods was fighting with special operations forces when he was killed, his mother told the Redding Record Searchlight newspaper.

A spokesman with U.S. Special Operations Command-Central Command could not immediately confirm whether Woods was a member of a Marine special operations company. Officials have said that a West Coast-based MSOC is operating in Afghanistan.

If Woods was with the company, he would be the first combat fatality for Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, which was stood up last year.

Woods joined the Corps on Sept. 8, 2003.

The battalion listed in the press release as Woods’ unit, 3/1, is operating in Iraq as the battalion landing team for the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is expected to leave the country later this month.