Washington Post -- At Columbia Union College, Jonathan D. Cadavero was known as a fine student, an able basketball player and a gregarious and popular figure on the campus in Takoma Park.

Cadavero, a 2004 graduate of Columbia Union, a four-year liberal arts college affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, entered the Army and was trained as a medic. He became part of a platoon that carried out one of the most vital and dangerous assignments in Iraq -- hunting for improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs.

In an interview published online, he had told a reporter from the Military Times organization something that now seems tragically prophetic.

"With IEDs," he said, "either we find them, or they find us."

In Baghdad on Tuesday, an IED found him, according to a statement released last night by the Pentagon.

Spec. Cadavero, 24, and two other soldiers from his unit died when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle, the statement said.

The three were assigned to the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) at Fort Drum, N.Y.

"Every time you leave the base, anything could happen," Cadavero said in the interview, given Feb. 11.

"Route clearance can be boring," he said, "but it's Iraq. It doesn't stay boring for long."

Cadavero "was a tremendous personality" on the Columbia Union campus, the college's Web site said.

He was a*censored*laude graduate and was on the dean's list every year, and he was also a member of an academic honor society and a psychology honor society.

According to the Web site, Cadavero's survivors include his sister, Krista, a 2001 Columbia Union graduate; his mother, Nadia, and his father, David, who is superintendent of schools for the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

His relatives could not be immediately reached last night.

Cadavero "really made quite an impact" on the Takoma Park campus, school spokesman Scott Steward said. "He was a tremendous guy."