WOOD TV --SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- A teen who got his parents' permission to join the Army at 17 has been killed in the blast of an improvised explosive device in Iraq.

Pfc. Christopher D. Kube, 18, of Macomb County's Shelby Township died Saturday in Baghdad. He was one of two Michigan soldiers reported killed in Iraq last week.

Kube was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colo., the Defense Department said.

"He volunteered for that mission," his mother, Debbie Krupski, said Monday from the family's home, about 15 miles north of Detroit. "My son wasn't even supposed to be there."

Kube was a gunner and the only soldier killed in the explosion, Krupski told The Detroit News.