Miami Herald -- After the 9/11 attacks, Alexander Jordan's childhood fears of his mother, a flight attendant, dying in a plane crash resurfaced.

Jordan enlisted in the U.S. Army as a way to fight back, to protect his family and safeguard America.

On Sunday, almost five years to the day since the attacks and three years into his military service, the 31-year-old from Palmetto Bay was killed by enemy fire in Baghdad.

''He knew he wanted to make a difference, and he knew he could,'' Jordan's mother, Candace Jordan, said Tuesday night, her home filled with bouquets of sympathy flowers. ``He was such an incredible human being.''

Spc. Alexander Jordan had been deployed to Iraq with his unit from Fort Richardson, Alaska, since July 2005. It was supposed to be a one-year tour, patrolling areas near Mosul.

Last month, a few days before Jordan's family expected him home, he e-mailed his mom to say he was being sent to Baghdad for a four-month extension.

''That was my worst fear, him going to Baghdad,'' Candace Jordan said.

Jordan, a Miami-Dade native who attended Southwood Middle School before finishing his education at a New Mexico military academy, enlisted in September 2003 and was posted to Fort Richardson.

Before joining the Army, he worked at a machine shop in New Mexico for several years after high school. He moved back to Miami-Dade and applied to work as a firefighter and police officer before turning to the Army.

Jordan enjoyed hunting and the outdoors, but above all lived to help others, his mom said.

MARRIED LAST YEAR

He married Tiffany, 21, in Alaska before his deployment to Iraq last year, Candace Jordan said.

Jordan was part of the military's mobile Stryker Brigade Combat Teams. He operated the Stryker armored fighting vehicles, more mobile and agile than tanks and other armored vehicles.

His unit had been conducting stability operations in an attempt to help the Iraqi government and Iraqi security forces stop outbreaks of violence in the capital, the military said.

Army Maj. Kirk Gohlke, public affairs officer at Fort Richardson, said Jordan was ``conducting a mounted patrol when he was shot by enemy small-arms fire.''

No other soldiers were injured in the attack, which happened at 6:45 p.m. Baghdad time on Sunday, Gohlke said.

At least 118 service members from Florida have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

A HERO

On Tuesday, Candace Jordan said she spoke to her son's commanding officer. He told her 150 soldiers honored her son during a memorial service. He said Alexander Jordan was a hero who was loved by his comrades.

''I told him Alex is a hero to us, too,'' she said. ``He always will be.''