By Kelsey Givens

Graveside services are today for a Marine killed in Afghanistan last week.

Cpl. Jon-Luke Bateman was just 22 when he died. The 2007 Pahrump Valley High School graduate and another young Marine, Lance Cpl. Kenneth Cochran, 20, of Wilder, Idaho, were electrocuted during an accident involving a broken electric generator.

Bateman will be buried at 10:40 a.m. at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.

He was on his first combat deployment, serving in Musa Qala, Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Services were held for Bateman at Pahrump Family Mortuary last night. A viewing and memorial service at the funeral home drew family and friends, local people who knew Bateman as well as members of the military.

“He was fun and spontaneous,” one man in a group of five of Bateman’s friends said, as they stood outside the funeral home waiting for the viewing to begin.

Jessie Augustine, James Burke, Shawn Janousek, Shayne Smith and Clifton Vickers all agreed that Bateman’s enduring legacy will be his loyalty — to his family, his friends and, finally, to his country.

“He always had the best interests of others over himself,” Smith said.

“He looked out for us,” Burke added.

All five said they met Bateman their freshman year when he moved to Pahrump from Hanford, Calif. They became good friends and remained so after graduation, though they all loved to joke that they couldn’t stand each other.

Once the doors to the mortuary’s viewing room opened, the atmosphere seemed to change, and for many tears began to fall.

Several Marines stood by the door, and guarded the casket as family and friends paid their last respects.

Bateman’s beloved motorcycle, a fire engine red Harley with cracked rock graphics on the sides, sat in the lobby as a reminder of one of his greatest passions in life.

“He wasn’t limited by anything,” Augustine said of his friend.

Rumors that members of the Westboro Baptist Church, infamous for spreading a particular brand of hatred outside military funerals, might show up to protest Bateman’s services, were met with hurt and anger.

His friends said someone, who didn’t even know him, had defended Bateman at a local store earlier in the day after someone threatened to protest Thursday night.

“It’s a small town, it would be dumb to start anything,” Janousek said.

Bateman arrived in Pahrump Wednesday night. His body was flown into Nellis Air Force Base and escorted into town by a large motorcade.

Darkness fell on Nellis Air Force Base as fellow Marines and family waited for the plane, a chartered jet, to land carrying Bateman’s remains.

Six Marines stood in perfect formation for more than 10 minutes to escort their fallen comrade from the plane to the hearse that would take him home.

Once the plane landed, Bateman’s family was given a private moment with his coffin, draped as it was with the American flag.

The six Marines then marched in formation to Bateman’s casket and carried him to a silver hearse.

After the last of his personal effects were placed in the vehicle with Bateman, the motorcade drove off the base and began its journey to return the Marine’s body home.

He was escorted by several veterans’ motorcycle club members, the Nevada Highway Patrol, three Nye County Sheriff’s Office patrol cars and a Marine Corps truck. A similar procession is expected to follow Bateman’s casket this morning to Boulder City.

Bateman was killed on Jan. 15 as he was reportedly coming to Cochran’s aid.

Some of the last messages he left for his friends and family on Facebook revealed Bateman to be like many young men his age. He said he was looking forward to earning a promotion soon, according to one message.

In another, he complained a bit about the heat where he was stationed. And in one of his last, he said he was anxious to get home.