Blecksmith had soldiering in his blood. His father, longtime San Marino resident Ed Blecksmith, was in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. As a boy, Blecksmith would dig out his father's old jungle utilities, dress himself for battle and dig a hole in a vacant lot next door to the home they lived in in Seattle for about five years.

"He'd dig a hole and play soldier,' his father said. "[But] I never pushed him to be a Marine.'

JP Blecksmith was the youngest of three children. He played football at Flintridge Prep -quarterback - and ran track, making it to the CIF finals in about 10 events during high school, his father said. He was a peer counselor at Flintridge Prep and it wasn't uncommon for him to take younger students under his wing, even if it was just to toss a football around with them, his father said.

Blecksmith was athletic and intelligent, with good SAT scores, and he was recruited by the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., his father said. There, he continued his football career, playing wide receiver for the Navy Midshipmen."He did everything that a father could ever want or ask of a son,' Ed Blecksmith said.

JP Blecksmith was 6-foot-3, and about 220 pounds after he went into the Marines. His father described him as compassionate, a "good-looking kid,' with a good sense of humor.

"He always had time for people,' Ed Blecksmith said. "He was a tough kid, to do what he did, but he also had a loving side. He knew when to be a tough guy and when to be a real gentleman.'

JP Blecksmith was commissioned as an officer in May 2003 and started his training at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Virginia. He returned to California, and to Camp Pendleton, this spring. After four more months of training, he was deployed to Iraq on Sept. 10. His family was notified Thursday night - Veterans Day - that he had been killed.

"It was devastating,' Blecksmith said. "I can't describe the emptiness I feel, the hurt I feel, the pain I feel, as does my wife.'

The family last spoke to him by phone two weeks ago and by e-mail shortly thereafter.

"I think he was a little pensive and that's understandable,' Ed Blecksmith said. "He'd been in firefights but never heavy combat.' His father said hundreds of people have stopped by the family's San Marino home since Thursday.

"I think the thing I'll miss most is his antics,' his father said, referring to last Christmas, when JP came downstairs dressed as Saddam Hussein with pieces of an old Halloween wig stuck to his face. "He loved doing silly things.'

He is survived by his parents, Pam and Ed; sister, Christina, 27; and brother, Alex, 25.