The 20-year-old corporal from Colts Neck, who was among 16 service members killed when a military plane crashed earlier this month in rural Mississippi, had dreamed of serving his country since at least middle school, family and friends said Tuesday morning. As hundreds of people gathered for a memorial service at the Colts Neck High School football field, where Baldassare competed for four years, mourners remembered him as an adventurous and loving young man, who his commanding officer described as the "epitome of what a Marine is."