GROVER BEACH, Calif. — A Marine who hoped to earn a master’s degree after his deployment was killed last week in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said.

Lance Cpl. Jacob J. Toves, 27, of Grover Beach died Thursday in southwestern Afghanistan’s Helmand province. No other details on his death were released.

Toves was assigned to the 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, which is part of the 3rd Marine Division, in Okinawa, Japan.

At least two other Marines were killed the same day in the same area, the Defense Department said.

Toves enlisted in November 2006. He wrote on his MySpace Web page that he was working at continuing his education with the goal of attaining a master’s degree within the next five years.

“My two-year goal is to survive deployment and be an upstanding Marine,” Toves wrote on his MySpace blog.

Toves was single and had no children. His father, Joe Toves, declined to comment about his son’s death.