The Plain Dealer -- Kevin Ivy remembered Thursday that his baby brother Kendall had wanted to be a Marine since he was 5 years old.

"He lived his life to the fullest. He was kindhearted. He loved life. He loved his country. He loved his president. He believed in what he was doing," Kevin Ivy said.

Marine Staff Sgt. Kendall Ivy II, 29, died Wednesday in western Iraq from a severe leg wound he suffered when the Humvee he was riding in struck a roadside bomb, his family said. He bled to death from a severed main artery.

Ivy had been a Marine since June 1995, joining after graduation from Galion High School. He went to Iraq in February. The son of Raymond and Kay Ivy, he left behind a pregnant wife, LeeAnne; two sons, Caleb and Harris, and a daughter, Reagan.

David Baker, 28, said he and Ivy enlisted together.

"He was my best friend. He would do anything for anybody," said Baker, who left the Marines in 1999.

Also Wednesday, Lance Cpl. Wesley G. Davids, 20, of Dublin, Ohio, died from injuries suffered in an explosion while fighting in Karabilah, Iraq, the Defense Department reported.

Davids was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division out of Columbus. Davids' family could not be reached Thursday to comment on their loss.