Spc. Kevin M. Jones, 21, died near Al Taqaddum in central Iraq, west of Baghdad. He was a 2002 graduate of Washington High School, where he played football and was in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.

In the Army, Jones was a transport specialist and was always volunteering to hit the road because he hated hanging around his base, said his brother, Kenneth Jones of Chocowinity.

It was his second tour of duty in Iraq. This was also the second time that the young soldier had been in a vehicle attacked with a roadside bomb. In April, he was riding in the back of a 5-ton truck when it was hit and badly damaged.

"He was lightly wounded, a little bit of deafness," his brother said. "Unfortunately, it wasn't like that this time."

Jones was always upbeat, Kenneth Jones said.

"If he could find a way to be happy, he would," Jones said. "He just wasn't the kind to mope around."

Before joining the Army, Jones had become an emergency medical technician. He also had been trained as a combat lifesaver, and after that first bomb blast -- despite being unable to hear -- he rushed around treating other injured soldiers.

That was characteristic, Kenneth Jones said. His brother was so focused on helping others that he had begun attending meetings of a local volunteer fire department at age 16, lobbying to join. Eventually he was allowed to become a member while he was still in his teens.

That attitude extended to Iraq, said Kenneth Jones, recalling a photo of his brother that another soldier snapped in April on the back of that truck, just minutes before the explosion.

"I believe that was the biggest smile I've ever seen on his face, and you could tell that it wasn't posed or anything," he said.

"He was actually very happy to be in Iraq," Jones said. "The Iraqi people, he loved them. He said they were just like Southerners, except of course the ones who did this kind of thing.

"He really believed in his mission there," he said. "He believed we should stay until the Iraqi people were able to defend themselves and keep what was there before from happening again."

Kenneth Jones, who drives 18-wheelers for a living, was on the road Friday afternoon when the notification team from Fort Bragg came to his parents' home. They stayed for eight hours until his return.

Kevin Jones' survivors include: his brother and sister-in-law Katie Jones of Chocowinity; his parents, Kenneth Jones Sr. and Rebecca Jones, both of Washington; and sister Kamlyn Jones of Greenwood, S.C.