News 8 Austin -- HUGHES SPRINGS, Texas -- A 26-year-old soldier from northeast Texas who was serving a second tour in Iraq was killed in an explosion this week.

Staff Sergeant Samuel T. Castle of Naples died Wednesday from injuries suffered from an improvised explosive device in Al Asad. That's what the Department of Defense said today.

Naples was assigned to the Army's 327th Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

His mother, 44-year-old Della Castle Payne of Hughes Springs, said that she last heard from her son on Mother's Day by phone and e-mail.

She said her son, who graduated from Hughes Springs High School in 1996, excelled in baseball and football. He went to Tyler Junior College before joining the military.

Both Samuel Castle and his wife, Nicole, were sent to Iraq at the end of November, leaving their one-year-old son, also named Samuel, with her parents.

The soldier also has a six-year-old daughter who lives in Dallas.

Including Castle, at least 150 Texas service members have died in Iraq since the war began March 20, 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.