A Marine died during a training accident at Camp Pendleton in which an amphibious assault vehicle became submerged, base officials said Friday.

Five other Marines in the vehicle survived without injury. The accident occurred at 11:30 a.m. in the Del Mar boat basin on the base.

The unidentified Marine was recovered at 2:15 p.m. and flown by helicopter to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, where he was pronounced dead at 2:47 p.m., officials said.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

On this morning before Christmas, the remains of Marine Lance Cpl. William H. Crouse IV, who was killed Tuesday in combat in Afghanistan, were returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Crouse, 22, from Woodruff, S.C., was the 161st Marine killed in Afghanistan this year, according to the independent website www.icasualties.org.

Of those, 60 were from Camp Pendleton in Southern California. Others, like Crouse, were from other Marine bases but, in Afghanistan, were attached to the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).

Crouse and his bomb-sniffing dog were killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand province. He had been in Afghanistan for six weeks as Marines continue their mission to wrest away control of what has long been a Taliban stronghold.

His mother, Nancy Siders of Fort Wayne, Ind., told the newspaper in Greenville, S.C. that her son's dying concern was for his dog.

"My son was coherent for a brief period, and his biggest concern was 'where is my dog? Save my dog. Put him in the Medevac with me. Save his life,'" she said.

The dog was put in the helicopter with Crouse but died. It was the Marines' fifth bomb-sniffing dog to be killed in combat.

Crouse was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 10th Regiment, from Camp Lejeune, N.C.  He played football in high school and joined the Marines, his mother said, because "he always lived life on the edge."

Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos and Sgt.-Major Carlton Kent, the top enlisted man in the Marine Corps, are in Afghanistan to spend the holidays with the Marines.

Standing on a tank at Camp Leatherneck, Amos told Marines from Camp Pendleton and other bases that he brought a message of thanks from President Barack Obama. He added his own appreciation.

"I'm honored to be in your presence," Amos told the troops. "I want to say thank you and God bless every one of you and Merry Christmas."

(The tanks have recently arrived in Afghanistan from Camp Pendleton and will soon be put into action as the fight against the Taliban intensifies.)

For Christmas, officers are trying to ensure that Marines in far-flung outposts around Helmand province get at least an upgraded dinner and maybe a chance to phone home.

But for the most part, Marines will be going on patrols, making efforts to win support from Afghan civilians, and confronting the possibility of a firefight, ambush or roadside bomb.

"Christmas will be a lot like the day before and the day after_ this fight does not go away," said Col. Paul Kennedy, commanding officer of Regimental Combat Team 2. "This enemy does not take a break from plying his treachery."

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Casket of Marine Lance Cpl. William H. Crouse IV returns to Dover Air Force Base. Credit: Associated Press

A Marine from Camp Pendleton has been killed in Afghanistan, the Defense Department announced Monday.

Cpl. Eric Torbert Jr., 25, of Lancaster, Pa., was killed Saturday during combat in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold, the Pentagon said. He was assigned to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Pendleton.

Torbert enlisted in September 2007. This was his first combat deployment.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

William Rollins, 27, of Houston, has been awarded the Silver Star for bravery during combat in Afghanistan while serving as a sergeant in the Marine Corps.

While on reconnaissance patrol in June 2008 near the village of Dowlatabad, Rollins' squad was ambushed by Taliban fighters with machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

Rollins, the squad leader, moved to within 30 meters of the enemy and "in the face of certain death," provided suppressive gunfire that allowed other Marines to escape the ambush zone. Rollins then moved through enemy fire to help drag a wounded Marine to safety, according to the Silver Star citation.

Rollins was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment from the base at Twentynine Palms. He has since returned to civilian life.

The Silver Star was awarded at a ceremony at Twentynine Palms on Friday, attended by 200 Marines, Rollins' parents -- Jerry Wayne and Barbara Rollins -- and his wife Alexandra, who is expecting the couple's first child.

--Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Sgt. William Rollins. Credit: U.S. Marine Corps

A Marine lance corporal from Camp Pendleton has been killed in combat in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Saturday.

Jose Maldonado, 21, of Mathis, Texas, was killed Friday in Helmand province. He was part of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. A riflleman, he was on his first deployment.

Maldonado is the 21st Marine from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment killed in Afghanistan since Oct. 8. The battalion has been assigned to wrest control of the Sangin area from Taliban fighters.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

An ex-Marine was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in state prison for shooting at a California Highway Patrol officer after a 2009 freeway chase in El Cajon.

Edward Michael Forney, 21, was sentenced in the El Cajon branch of San Diego County Superior Court after pleading guilty to assaulting a police officer. The officer was unhurt in the Aug. 9, 2009, incident.

Forney was a Marine private stationed at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego. He has since been administratively separated from the Marine Corps.

The incident began about 3 a.m. on Interstate 8 when the driver of a car in which Forney was a passenger refused to pull over. A CHP officer believed the driver was drunk.

The driver, Charles Neal, 24, pleaded guilty to felony evading arrest and was sentenced to two years in prison.

El Cajon police said Forney and Neal were documented gang members.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

A Marine lieutenant from Camp Pendleton has been killed in combat in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced Friday.

First Lt. William J. Donnelly IV, 27, of Picayune, Miss.,  is the 16th Marine from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment to be killed since Oct. 8 during fighting in the Sangin area of Helmand province, long a Taliban stronghold.

Donnelly, an infantry officer, was killed Thursday during a foot patrol. He received his commission in June 2008; this was his first combat deployment.

The 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment is part of the 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton. The battalion has had to rush replacements to Sangin to take the place of Marines killed or wounded in action.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

A 19-year-old Marine from Camp Pendleton has been killed during a combat foot patrol in Afghanistan, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

Lance Cpl. Ardenjoseph A. Buenagua of San Jose, Calif., died Wednesday in Helmand province, long a Taliban stronghold. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in July 2009 and was on his first combat deployment.

Buenagua was assigned to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Pendleton.

--Tony Perry in San Diego

The name is decidedly un-Afghan: the Infantry Immersion Trainer.

But everything else in the $28.5-million venue at Camp Pendleton, which made its debut Tuesday, is meant to simulate the sights, sounds and, yes, the smells of an Afghan village -- the kind that Marines will encounter in Helmand province.

The goal, said Col. David Smith, program manager for Marine Corps training systems, is to close the gap between the last day of training and the first day in Afghanistan. Camp Pendleton has 10,000 Marines in Afghanistan.

Similar mockups are being built at Camp Lejeune, N.C. ($16 million) and Hawaii ($31 million).

The "village" at Camp Pendleton is 130,000 square feet, complete with bazaar stalls, a small mosque, mounds of broken concrete, ersatz corn and poppy fields, drooping telephone wires, a heroin production mill and two-story buildings where snipers and Taliban sympathizers may lurk.  There are 25 "smell generators," six sound systems, 233 cameras for capturing the action indoors and outdoors, 20 animal pens (with fake sheep), weapons caches and crude labs for making roadside bombs.

Some 40 Afghan "role-players" engage Marines in various scenarios, sometimes greeting them with friendliness, sometimes with hostility. Marines are faced with decisions on when to use their weapons, all being filmed for review later.

A Marine infantry officer from Camp Pendleton has been killed during combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday.

Second Lt. Robert Kelly, 29, of Tallahassee, Fla., was killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb while on foot patrol. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton.

Kelly, commissioned in December 2008, was on his third combat deployment.

Twenty-three Marines from Camp Pendleton have been killed in Afghanistan since late July.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego