Chase A. Edwards

RALEIGH, N.C. — The morning of the day he died, Marine Pfc. Chase A. Edwards told his mother in a telephone call that his area of Iraq had become more dangerous.

Edwards, 19, who was killed Thursday while on patrol in Ramadi, west of Baghdad in Anbar province, said his unit had lost four men Friday and Sunday. Some of his friends were worried, he said.

His mother, Melody Hartwell, asked her son how he was feeling.

“He said Mom, ‘I’m very at peace,”’ she said.

Then he described how he said prayers and listened to a CD before going out on patrol. He repeated the ceremony when he returned to camp.

“When he said that he was at peace, I could hear in his voice that he really...