Houston Chronicle -- First Lt. David Michael Fraser of Houston was among three soldiers who were killed in Baghdad earlier this week when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle, the military reported Tuesday.

His mother, Helen Fraser, said the family was notified at home Sunday night that David Fraser had died earlier that day.

"We were pretty sure when we saw the captain step out of the vehicle that we knew why he was there," she said Tuesday.

Fraser, 25, graduated from Spring ISD's Westfield High School in 2000, his mother said. The family has a history of military service, she said.

She said she was an Air Force nurse, her husband was an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam and their son, Patrick, 27, was a captain in the Army.

David Fraser, who was stationed in Fort Hood, was deployed to Iraq in December 2005 and was scheduled to return to Texas in early December, according to information provided by the family.

Helen Fraser said her son was an honor student and cross-country track team member in high school.

After high school, he attended the Army Airborne, the Air Assault and the Army Ranger schools.

David Fraser graduated in 2004 from U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was a member of the cross-country and track teams, and received a civil engineering degree.

First Lt. Ahren Reiter, Fraser's West Point classmate who is stationed at Fort Carson, Colo., said the two were on the cross-country team.

"He was a true Texan, for sure," Reiter remembered, saying Fraser was "very outgoing, incredibly friendly, almost always had a great big smile on his face."

Reiter said Fraser was caring and compassionate for his teammates, friends at school and people in the community.

"He was an active member of the Protestant chapel there and was also active in helping out in Sunday school and a lot of Christian community events. He was a very strong Christian," Reiter said.

Fraser joined the military in May 2004 as an engineer and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division.

He is survived by his parents, Richard and Helen Fraser of Houston; his brother, Patrick, and sister-in-law, April, of Las Vegas; and his grandmother, Nona Fraser of Wyoming.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Also killed were Capt. Jason Richard Hamill, 31, of New Haven, Conn., and Pvt. Joshua Cain Burrows, 20, of Bossier City, La.