Whether it was his obsession with law enforcement or his love for “Inspector Gadget” growing up, Debaney Comeaux’s son was focused on a future in special government operations through the FBI or the CIA.

U.S. Army Spc. Justin Coleman did not live to see a career with either agency. But his work rescuing U.S. prisoners of war in Afghanistan had placed him on that path, Comeaux said.

Coleman, a 21-year-old Hernando Beach, Fla., resident who spent summers in New Iberia with Comeaux, was killed July 24 in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, after enemy forces attacked his unit, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Defense.

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“They told me he got a tip on where one of the kidnapped soldiers was being kept, but it was a set-up,” Comeaux said.

His family here remembered him as a shy but happy child who could “stay up all night just laughing and playing video games.”

“He was just a smiley kid overall, inside and out,” said his brother, New Iberia native and resident Joseph “Joey” Fuselier, 28. “He was never worried about a social life until high school, then he made a lot of friends and started to grow up.”

Once Coleman grew out of his reserved personality, Comeaux said he turned out to be much like her — a jokester.

“He was a good boy,” she said as she wiped fallen tears from pictures of Coleman spread across her dining room table. “Once he came out of his shell, he was just funny and always joking around.”

From the moment he learned to speak, Coleman never stopped talking about wanting to be a police officer, then later a sheriff. Those talks continued for years, Comeaux said, until he later decided he wanted to work for the FBI or the CIA.

“He had a plastic badge, and he wore it all the time,” Comeaux said. “One day he handed it to me and said, ‘I’m giving this to you until I can get a real one.’ ”

Coleman was stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y., and was an infrantryman with the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.

He deployed to Afghanistan with his brigade as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in January.

His wife of two years, Nicole Coleman, was told the news of his death a day after her birthday, the Tampa Tribune reported.

Comeaux and her husband, Michael Comeaux, flew last weekend to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where loved ones were able to see his casket being brought off the plane and attend in a brief ceremony.

Coleman was a dedicated soldier who loved his job, Comeaux said, though she tried sometimes to discourage him from joining the military during wartime. 

“The day before he shipped out on his last mission, he told his dad in an e-mail, ‘I’m feeling very frisky today,’ ” Comeaux said. “He died doing what he wanted to do. I guarantee you he cared more about getting that prisoner than he did about himself. He’s a true hero, and I’m so proud of him.”