Oregon Live -- A U.S. Navy medic from Portland was killed over the weekend by a roadside bomb, the Defense Department announced Monday, marking the 49th person with close ties to Oregon to die in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Aaron A. Kent, 28, a graduate of Roosevelt High School, was a passenger in a Humvee on patrol Saturday afternoon near Fallujah when the bomb exploded. He died at the scene from massive internal chest injuries, according to the Navy.

"As far as I know, he was the only one killed or injured" in the incident, said Kent's father, Gary Kent, of North Portland.

Aaron Kent is the first member of the Navy from Oregon to die in Iraq. Navy deaths are relatively unusual in the war -- about 30 of the 1,570 military deaths, according to a Web site that lists details of all those killed in action.

Gary Kent described his son as an athletic, upbeat young man who joined the Navy as a way to learn and pursue a medical career.

"He was my best friend," Kent said. "He was a very compassionate, kind, loving person. He liked to joke around, liked to make people laugh. Everybody who came into Aaron's life came away with a real positive feeling."

Aaron Kent was a wrestler for the Peninsula Wrestling Club and played high school football. He also liked listening to music, shooting pool and watching professional sports and was a big fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, his father said.

Aaron Kent joined the Navy about three years ago after working at Wacker Siltronic and as a lab technician for the Red Cross. He reported to basic training in March 2002 and was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

"The job market was not so good in the Portland area" when Aaron decided to go into the military, Gary Kent said. "It's the same thing that makes so many people join up." Kent, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said he didn't push his son to join the Navy, but understood his decision.

"He did a tour in Afghanistan last year, and made it through that," Gary Kent said. "He came home for a while, but they knew they were going to turn around and go to Iraq."