Online Athens -- A 21-year-old Army corporal from Athens died Wednesday from wounds he suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near him in Iraq.

Brian L. Chevalier belonged to the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based in Fort Lewis, Wash., the Army said.

"He enlisted in the Army because he wanted to make more out of his life," said the soldier's father, Rick Chevalier of Crooksville, Ohio. "I was proud of him and still am, but I wish he would've found something that wasn't dangerous."

Brian Chevalier went to Iraq less than a year ago, almost immediately after getting out of boot camp, his father said.

The Army said Chevalier was mortally wounded in Mufrek, a suburb of Baqouba that's about 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, just outside of the so-called Sunni Triangle. Military operations in Mufrek reportedly have focused on rooting out al-Qaida operatives in Iraq and finding bomb factories.

Rick Chevalier said his son left Ohio with his mother when he was 6 years old, and that they lived in Florida, Tennessee and Arkansas before settling in Athens.

The soldier's mother, June "Fonda" Fegar, could not be reached Friday.

Fegar lives in Athens with another son, 17-year-old Dustin Chevalier.

Rick Chevalier said his son would visit him for months at a time, but lived mostly with his mother. He spoke with Brian last month, when his son told him not to worry for his safety.

"He told me, 'Don't worry, Dad, it's not really that bad over here. It's not like people are trying to kill you every day,' " Rick Chevalier said. "That kind of eased my mind, because I was always thinking, you know, what if he gets shot or attacked?"

Brian Chevalier never talked about the politics of U.S. policy in Iraq, but was committed to carrying out his mission, his father said.

But Rick Chevalier said he opposes the war.

"I don't understand why we have to have so many of our troops over there, to blow the country up and try to rebuild it," he said. "We're wasting a lot of our people, when the troops could be here doing things for this country instead of doing things for people who are killing them."

In addition to his parents and brother in Athens, Chevalier is survived by a 5-year-old daughter, Taylor Chevalier of New York; three stepbrothers, Lake Pennington, Brandon Pennington and Justin Holmes, all of Ohio; grandparents, Leonard and Joann Chevalier of Crooksville and Hazel McCormick of Georgia; and several aunts and uncles in Ohio.

As of Friday, more than 3,200 members of the U.S. military had died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to the Associated Press.