Raised in Hilo, Hawai'i, Lt. Cmdr. Morgan C. Tulang was in the Navy Reserve and had a civilian job in Japan when he received an activation order last summer for duty in Afghanistan.

But his wife was due to give birth to their second child at that time, and Tulang received a deferment to January of this year.

The Afghanistan duty was canceled and Tulang, 36, thought perhaps the Navy wouldn't need him in the Middle East. But he was quickly given a new assignment and he left for Camp Arifjan in Kuwait on Jan. 5.

"What was happening is that because there's such a stress on the Army, as we understand it, that Air Force and Navy (personnel) were being activated," said Tulang's mother, Julie, who lives in Hilo.

The family recently received the news that Tulang, assigned to a U.S. Central Command distribution operations center, died in Kuwait on Friday from apparent natural causes.

His mother said her son had just called his wife and said he was going to the gym to work out. He was found slumped over unconscious and couldn't be revived.

"He must have had a massive heart attack or something," Julie Tulang said. She added that "each day gets a little better, but it's really hard to lose a son."

Tulang's grandmother, Teo-pista Tulang of Papa'ikou, said her grandson's death is hard to accept.

"The day he left, he called to inform me he was leaving that evening for overseas, and he told me, 'Granny, I'm OK, you take care of yourself. I'm OK,' and that's the last time I had a conversation with him," she said.

Morgan Tulang graduated from St. Joseph High School in 1988. He was commissioned in the Navy after graduating from the University of Notre Dame, loved the Far East, and spent most of his 10 years on active duty there before entering the Navy Reserve in 2002.

Teopista Tulang said her grandson was quiet but very intelligent. He had studied Mandarin in Taiwan after graduating from Notre Dame and before going on active duty.

Tulang was a civilian employee at the naval base at Yokosuka. The Navy Reservist and his wife, Megumi, have two children: a daughter, Mia, who is 1 1/2, and a 7-month-old son, Mitchell.

Services have not been finalized yet, but likely will be held next week, the family said. Tulang will be buried in Hilo at the veterans cemetery.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.