A 1997 Penn State graduate died in combat in Afghanistan last week, the university announced on Tuesday.

Marine Corps Maj. Sam Griffith was killed Dec. 14 during an operation in Helmand province. He was 36 and left behind a wife, Casey, and two sons, Noah and Chad, ages 6 and 7 respectively.

Griffith and his wife, who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., both belonged to Penn State’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit. The day after Griffith’s death, the NROTC unit added a plaque to him to a memorial outside Wagner Building that honors Marines and sailors from University Park who have died in the line of duty since Sept. 11, 2001.

Griffith is the latest known Penn Stater to die in combat. Enemy fire killed Marine Corps Reserve Sgt. Bill Cahir, a 1990 graduate, in August 2009 in Afghanistan. Four years earlier, Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL who graduated in 1998, died in Afghanistan after sacrificing himself to cover comrades under fire and radio for help. For his actions, he received the Medal of Honor posthumously in 2007.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Griffith died Dec. 15.