Courier-Journal -- Army Sgt. Matthew L. Deckard, a former Elizabethtown resident on his second deployment to Iraq, was killed last week while on patrol in Baghdad, the Pentagon said yesterday.

"He just loved the military," said his mother, Cassie Gill of Elizabethtown.

"I can still feel his arms around me. He was a good, good guy. Everybody thought the world of Matt. I just loved Matt so much. He was my baby boy."

Deckard, 29, was based at Fort Stewart in Georgia. He joined the Army in early 1995 after graduating in 1994 from Elizabethtown High School, Gill said.

Deckard was killed Friday when a roadside bomb exploded near his Abrams A1A tank, the Pentagon said.

Deckard first served in Iraq in spring 2003 during the U.S.-led invasion; he returned earlier this year, his mother said.

Deckard met his wife, Angela, a native of Harlan, while in high school, and the couple had three children: a 7-year-old girl and two boys, ages 5 and 3, his mother said.

"He was the best dad. He loved those kids," she said.

Deckard's father, Virgil L. Deckard, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Southern Indiana, said: "When is it going to stop? We don't have enough troops over there, and they are just picking our guys off one by one."

Matthew Deckard was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart. Division spokesman Jim Jeffcoat said Deckard had been at the Georgia post since 2001.

Gill said her son was born in Corydon, Ind., and the family moved to Kentucky in the 1980s.

Gini Sinclair, media relations officer at Fort Knox, said that as a tank crewman, Deckard would have trained at the Kentucky post, but it was unclear when.

James Turner, a librarian at West Hardin Middle School, which Deckard attended, said he remembered the student using the library during language arts class.

"I kind of remember him wearing his jeans and boots. And he was a cordial boy and never gave me any problems or any attitude," Turner said.

Beginning today, teachers at the school likely will discuss Deckard's death with students, principal James Roe said.

Roe said that he didn't know Deckard but that his death and those of other soldiers in Iraq have shaken him.

"It's got to where I can hardly turn the news on because of that," Roe said. "I don't want to see it."

Jeffcoat said funeral arrangements have not been made so he does not know whether Deckard will be buried in Kentucky.