Scottie L. Bright

Friday, July 08 2005 @ 07:59 AM EDT

Contributed by: tomw

Montgomery Advertiser -- An Army soldier from Montgomery was killed Tuesday in Baghdad when an explosive device detonated while he was making duty rounds in a Humvee.

Staff Sgt. Scottie L. Bright, 36, didn't express fears about dying, his brother said.

"He just said he knew the extent of the job, and he was going out to do what he was trained for," said Willie Bright Jr. of Jackson, Miss.

Scottie Bright was on his second tour in Iraq. Family members received an e-mail from him hours before he went on duty Tuesday.

"He just was saying, 'Hey, tell Mama hello and I'm OK. I'm resting, but we're getting ready to go out on patrol in the next couple of hours,'" Willie Bright Jr. said Thursday.

Willie Bright Jr. said his brother was cheerful and helpful and never got into any kind of trouble.

"I don't ever remember him getting a parking ticket or a speeding ticket," he said. "He just tried to make everybody around him feel better."

Scottie Bright, originally from Jackson, worked for a time in Alabama's Capital City as a manager at a toy store before entering the service in the early 1990s, his brother said.

Scottie Bright was following in his brother's footsteps in joining the Army.

Willie Bright Jr. said his brother served at Fort Hood Military Reservation in Texas, and in Hawaii and Korea.

Scottie Bright is survived by his wife, Carolyn, a 16-year-old daughter, Shay, and a 13-year-old son, Scottie Jr.

They are taking the death "pretty hard," Willie Bright Jr. said.

Willie Bright Jr. said the death is particularly difficult for their mother, Blanche Bright.

But he said she commented, "We still can accept it because he chose that for a job. He knew the circumstances. He knew the risks of the job."

A service date and time is pending, Willie Bright Jr. said.

The blast also claimed the life of Cpl. Lyle J. Cambridge, 23, of Shiprock, N.M.

Both Bright and Cambridge were assigned to the Third Squadron, Third Armored Calvary Regiment at Fort Carson Military Reservation near Colorado Springs, Colo.

According to news accounts, Fort Carson has lost 129 soldiers since the start of the war.

"Each one is just as difficult as the last one," Fort Carson spokeswoman Dee McNutt said Thursday. "It's hard on the families, and it's hard on the people here."

At the same time, she said the post has a good assignment.

"And we try to just continue on and do that mission," she said.

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