Henry Daily Herald -- Before Blake M. Harris could join the United States Army, he had to have his braces removed. When he was 16, the Army recruiters came to his house in Lovejoy and his parents, Paul and Anne, signed the paperwork allowing their third son to join the Army.

Harris graduated on a Friday in 1997. The next Friday, he packed his belongings in a dark green duffle bag and left home for basic training.

Harris went on three tours of duty. The father of a 6-year-old son, married for about two years, Harris planned to make a career out of the Army. He went to Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division. He went to Baghdad with the 1st Armored Division.

Last September, he left for the third time and went to Baghdad again with the 1st Cavalry.

"That was the last time I was able to give him a hug," said Paul Harris, his father. "That was the first time he was worried about going."

During his first two tours, Blake Harris had been behind the front lines. From the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2007, Harris was a staff sergeant leading other soldiers on foot patrols into dangerous territory and was working as a forward observer, riding in a Bradley tank. It was dangerous work in a territory where there were no lines. Blake Harris said, "Dad, I can’t worry about that. I know that if it’s my time to go then it’s my time to go, whether I’m in Baghdad or Texas or Georgia. I’m just going to do my duty."

On Thursday, March 15, 15 days before his 28th birthday, Blake Harris died.

Leading a foot patrol outside of Baghdad, a roadside bomb was remotely detonated, killing him and three of the soldiers following him.

"He strongly believed, like we believe, that when it’s your time to die it’s your time to die," said Anne Harris, his mother. "Before he left for his third and final tour in this awful war, he told us that he had an awesome responsibility this time around and that his greatest fear was that he would not get all of his guys home alive... He never showed us his fear for his own life."

A memorial service will be held for Blake Harris at the First Baptist Church of Jonesboro, 147 Church Street, at 2 p.m. on Friday.

"I hope there’s a big turn-out to honor him and honor all of them," Paul Harris said.

Paul and Anne joined the church the year before Blake was born, and he grew up in the church.

"If you spent any time with him, you’d go away with your sides hurting and your eyes welled up and you’d say, ‘That’s an impressive young man,’" said the Rev. Larry Lawrence, the church’s youth minister and the father of one of Blake’s close friends. "He knew he was called to do what he was doing. He was not fearful. He was called to do what he was doing and he did it well. Blake had a growing, intimate relationship with Christ that made itself very visible over in Baghdad."

Paul and Anne have been getting phone calls from the men and women who served with their son. They are hearing stories, they say, that so many soldiers insisted on accompanying his body to the airplane that the procession was the size of a general’s. They are told that he was a model soldier, who led Bible studies at night.

"There are still patriots," Anne said. "We know that he is in the arms of the Savior."

He planned to re-enlist in 2009, 12 years in the Army.

He will be buried at the National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., in the next two weeks.

According to the Department of Defense, Blake Harris was the 3,206th U.S. soldier to die since the war began.

On Monday, on the fourth anniversary of the invasion, facing criticism from a Democratic Congress and a growing opposition to the war, President Bush defended his strategy of sending an additional 30,000 soldiers to Iraq. He asked for patience and reasserted the importance of the mission.

"There will be good days, and there will be bad days ahead as the security plan unfolds," Bush said during a televised address Monday. "Success will take months, not days or weeks."