SC civilian killed in Afghanistan returning home

JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A civilian contractor from Mount Pleasant killed earlier this month in Afghanistan is coming home.

A planeside honor ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday at Joint Base Charleston for 59-year-old James Coker. Military officials have said Coker was kidnapped from a power plant where he was working in Afghanistan and later killed.

The Department of Defense said Coker was the only the third Pentagon civilian killed in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

Coker, a contract worker for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, had been in Afghanistan for about three months. He was scheduled to return home this month.