
BRADENTON, Fla. — The grandfather of a 20-year-old Marine thought it was his grandson home early from a second tour of duty in Iraq when he saw a man in uniform walking up his gravel drive.
But the smile on Cyril Dougherty’s face faded when he realized it was another Marine coming to his home to tell him Lance Cpl. Scott Eugene Dougherty had been killed.
“I saw a uniform coming down the driveway, and I really thought it was Scotty coming home early to surprise us,” Cyril Dougherty recounted of the Tuesday visit. “But then I saw the other two holding up his sister Nicole, who was sobbing. That’s how we found out.”
His family said Scott Dougherty was...