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Navy SEAL Charlie Keating, Arcadia grad and grandson of Charles Keating, killed in Iraq

Navy SEAL Charlie Keating, an acclaimed Arcadia High School distance runner and grandson of the famous S&L financier with the same name, died in northern Iraq Tuesday.

Craig Harris, Robert Anglen, and Anne Ryman
The Republic | azcentral.com
  • Navy SEAL Charlie Keating, grandson of the famous S&L financier, died in northern Iraq on Tuesday
  • Keating was serving fourth tour in Middle East, according to family friend
Charlie Keating IV, (center) at his Navy SEAL graduation in 2008, with his grandfather, Charles Keating Jr. (left), and his father, Charles Keating III.

Navy SEAL Charlie Keating, an acclaimed Arcadia High School distance runner and grandson of the famous savings-and-loan financier with the same name, died in northern Iraq on Tuesday after Islamic State militants penetrated Kurdish defensive lines and launched an attack with small arms and car bombs.

Bradley Boland, Keating’s uncle, confirmed to The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com that his nephew had been killed.

Charlie Keating, known as “C-4” because he had the same name as three generations before him, also is the cousin of Olympic swimming champion Gary Hall Jr.

Hall Jr. said he was not comfortable talking about his cousin’s death.

“It’s horrible, and it breaks my heart,” said Conley Wolfswinkel, a Valley developer and close friend of the Keating family. “My heart goes out to the family. No one deserves this.”

UPDATE: A SEAL brother rushes to support family

ROBERTS: Charlie Keating, another good soldier, gone

Gov. Doug Ducey ordered the lowering of flags to honor the Navy SEAL.

“Our state and nation are in mourning today over the loss of a U.S. serviceman — and one of America’s finest," Ducey said in a statement. "Mr. Keating is the third American service member to be killed in direct combat in our nation’s fight against ISIS. His death is a tragic reminder of the daily sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform — fighting evil and extremism on the front lines to protect freedom and democracy at home and throughout the world."

The governor directed all state flags to be lowered to half-staff from sunrise to sunset Wednesday, and flags will be lowered on the day of his interment.

The 31-year-old Keating, a 2004 graduate of Arcadia High School, was city and region champion in the 1,600-meter run as a sophomore, junior and senior. He earned all-city and first-team all-state honors as a high-school senior, according to Indiana University, where he went to college, following in his father’s footsteps.

His father, Charles H Keating III, was a three-time All-American and competed in breaststroke at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, according to a university statement.

Charlie Keating was a student at Indiana from 2004-06 and ran on the track and cross-country teams. He left college to enlist in the Navy and try to become a SEAL, according to Robert Chapman, who coached cross country at the time.

Navy SEAL remembered for 'magnetic personality' as IU runner

Chapman said the runner was a high achiever. It’s not always about being a Big Ten champion or All-American, Chapman said.

“You’re doing this to find out how good you could be,” said Chapman, now associate director for sports science at USA Track & Field. “Everyone ends up going about that in their own way. Charlie, in his own way, found out how good he could be.”

Charles Keating IV in 2002.

In high school, Keating spent three weeks in a steamy Costa Rican jungle, eating only beans and rice and paddling a canoe up to 40 miles a day as part of the Outward Bound cable TV series set in the Latin American country.

Keating, who ran more than 70 miles a week in high school, had to get permission from school officials to miss his classes and had to make up his homework before and after he went on the trip. For being on the show, he received $300.

Teens on the show weren't allowed to contact their families during the three-week trip, although they could receive letters.

"You just had to deal with it," Keating said in a 2002 interview. "It was really, really fun, but at times I said, 'Why am I here?' "

Phoenix-area teen Charles Keating IV's 'Outward Bound' trek debuts on Discovery Kids

Keating is the third American to die in combat in Iraq since the U.S. military deployed advisers and other personnel there in 2014 to support the war against ISIS. A U.S. Defense Department official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that the service member killed was a SEAL.

Keating's grandfather, Charles H Keating Jr., died at age 90 in 2014.

Keating Jr.'s real-estate developments, including the Phoenician Resort, are crown jewels of the Valley, and his well-publicized charitable works included befriending and offering financial help to Mother Teresa. Yet, Keating Jr. also will be remembered as a man whose financial empire cost many investors their life savings when it crumbled. His name also became part of the moniker for a group of senators who intervened on his behalf with regulators during the 1980s savings-and-loan scandal.

Charles H Keating Jr. dies at age 90

As a high-school senior, Charlie Keating said he was proud of his grandfather and enjoyed having the same name, even when other children made fun of him.

"I'm really close to him," the young Keating said at the time. "What happened in the past, I really don't care."

Keating family friend Alan Eads said Tuesday that the family is reeling from the news.

“We’re all very sad he was killed, of course,” said Eads, a retired Scottsdale veterinarian.

Eads confirmed that both Charlie Keating and his brother, William, are U.S. Navy SEALS.

Another Keating cousin, 32-year-old Liz Keating of Cincinnati, said Charlie Keating had a "sense of duty to serve his country."

“He just had this sense of purpose for what he was doing. He loved what he was doing. He was a real-life superhero," Liz Keating said.

Charlie Keating left Indiana University and went directly to training in Coronado, Calif., to become a Navy SEAL. The SEALs are an elite special-operations force. Fewer than 25 percent of those who begin the training successfully complete it, according to the Navy. He graduated from SEAL training in 2008.

Childhood friends of Keating's said they, too, were shocked by his death.

Monique Cruz said they became friends at Ingleside Middle School. They had to be separated in class because they talked so much, she said.

She talked with him during their Arcadia High 10-year reunion in 2014 at a classmate’s former restaurant near 44th Street and Indian School Road, she said.

“I’m just really glad that my last memory with him was such a good one,” Cruz said. "He was doing extremely well and was so happy. He kept me laughing the whole time.”

Keating came alone to the reunion but shared that he was engaged to Brooke Clark, whom he had met in California.

“Charlie died a hero,” Cruz said. “He was a phenomenal track runner. Just amazing. Everyone had their little cliques, but Charlie was friends with everybody. I don’t think I was ever upset with him.”

Arcadia High School's Charles Keating IV is in for a big day

Sashah Askari said she ran track with Keating in high school and lived a few houses down from him in Paradise Valley for at least a decade.

When he was 11, she said, his mom would drive right behind him to give him light as he ran because there were no streetlights.

"Who does that? He was so dedicated to his sport,” said Askari, who now lives in Miami, Fla.

“Oh my God, he cracked everyone up. He was everyone’s friend,” she said.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Islamic State terrorists overran Iraqi soldiers guarding a checkpoint, then attacked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters 2 miles away, where Keating was advising.

"He was not on the front lines, and it turns out that being two miles away from the battle between ISIL and Iraqi forces is a dangerous place to be," Earnest said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter described the fatality as a "combat death" that highlights the dangers American troops face in Iraq, even though they are not engaged in direct fighting with the Islamic State. The name of the service member was not released.

"It shows you it's a serious fight that we have to wage in Iraq," said Carter, who is in Germany to attend a ceremony at the headquarters of U.S. European Command.

ISIL kills U.S. Navy SEAL in northern Iraq

The dead SEAL was part of a small team advising Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq. They had been checking on outposts when ISIS fighters mounted a complex attack, the official said. The SEALs were among the first advisers to help mentor counter-ISIS forces.

ISIS militants used car bombs and bulldozers to breach the front line. They raced ahead and attacked the command post where the SEAL was located.

There was no indication that ISIS fighters knew U.S. troops were at the facility at the time, officials said.

Republic reporter Yihyun Jeong, Indianapolis Star reporter David Woods and USA TODAY and Cincinnati.com contributed to this article.