Tallahassee Democrat -- Melody Gifford remembers her nephew, Alan, as a boy, playing "Army guys" with his brothers.

"He was a lovely, happy kid," said Gifford, who lives in Massachusetts. "He wanted to help his country and going into the Army was the best way he knew how."

First Sgt. Alan Nye Gifford, a Lincoln High School graduate and 19-year veteran of the service, died Friday in Baghdad with another soldier when an explosive device went off near the tank they were patrolling in. The deaths were announced Tuesday.

Gifford, 39, leaves behind his wife of three years, Beth, and 2-year-old son Mitchell. They live in Georgia.

"Alan was a devoted husband, father and soldier," Beth Gifford said in a written statement released through the Army. "He believed in his soldiers, and, in the true spirit of his profession, gave his life protecting his men. He was a true hero."

Melody Gifford said Alan came to Tallahassee when his father, Doug, also a career Army man, began teaching ROTC at Florida State University after retiring. One of his brothers still lives in town.

Gifford graduated in 1984 from Lincoln, where he was on the baseball and football teams, according to biographical information.

Gifford planned to retire in January or February, his aunt said.

Army spokeswoman Dina McKain said Gifford's wife and other family members did not want to be interviewed Wednesday. But McKain, who was Gifford's friend, remembered him as an "outgoing guy with a wonderful sense of humor."

"He knew no strangers," she said. "Everybody who knew him liked him."

Gifford, who joined the Army in 1986, rose to the rank of 1st sergeant, the highest-ranking enlisted man in his company. He was stationed in North Carolina, Alaska and Louisiana over the years.

Gifford, a senior armored cavalry sergeant, was last detailed to Company C, 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, out of Fort Stewart, Ga., home of the 3rd Infantry Division.

During his career, he served in the first Gulf War while in the 82nd Airborne, was in the parachute infantry, and earned several commendations, including the Meritorious Service Medal.

He is slated to posthumously receive the Bronze Star, for "heroic or meritorious achievement ... in connection with military operations against an armed enemy," for his service in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Funeral services have not yet been made final.

The other soldier who died with Gifford was identified as Spc. David H. Ford IV, 20, of Ironton, Ohio.

Gifford is the second Tallahasseean to be killed in Iraq. Florida National Guardsman Robert Wise, 21, a Godby High School graduate and Tallahassee Community College student, was killed when a bomb exploded near his Humvee in November 2003.