Marine Pfc. Matthew D. Blair, 18, of Kettering, Ohio, patrols the streets of a compound near central Iraq on Wednesday. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

Last year at this time, Cheryl Blair was planning her son's graduation party.

Friday, the Kettering, Ohio, mother said she was thrilled to see a picture of her son, Matthew Blair, an assistant automatic rifleman with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, on the U.S. Marine Web site.

"He was dirty and scruffy," said Blair, whose daughter Amber Blair is also in the military, stationed in London in a Navy intelligence unit. "You should see what he looks like when he cleans up."

Matthew, 18, was accepted at Ohio State University and had planned to become an attorney. Instead he enlisted in the Marines, the third generation of Blairs to do so.

"It killed me. I knew war was coming, but he wouldn't listen," his mother said.

At first he had a job as a paralegal, which was some solace to Blair. But Matthew wasn't happy.

"He begged them to let him change his job to be a rifleman," she said. "I said, 'You could have been behind a desk,' and he said, 'You know, Mom, I'm not going to be a paper pusher. I want to be with everyone else.' "

Blair said she tries not to watch TV, but Wednesday she watched mesmerized as Baghdad fell and the statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down. Matthew called home that afternoon.

He couldn't say where he was calling from. But "when he asked me if I saw the statue come down, I knew he was in Baghdad, I knew he was there," Blair said. "I cried. It just overwhelmed me that my son is over there while history is being made. I am so proud."

Sharon Turco