Mercury News -- WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP, Mich. - A soldier from suburban Detroit who died in Iraq served his country with the same pride he had in it while growing up, his mother said Thursday.

Cpl. Alexander J. Kolasa, 22, of White Lake Township in Oakland County, died of noncombat causes, the Defense Department announced.

Kolasa's mother, Kathy, said in a telephone interview that her son was manning a guard tower north of Baghdad on Wednesday when he suffered a heart attack.

"It was very sudden," she said. "From the information I got, he collapsed, they performed CPR for 30 minutes, they electroshocked him. Then they helicoptered him out to a hospital, and that's where he died."

Asked if family members had any idea that Kolasa had heart problems, Kathy Kolasa said "absolutely none."

Alex Kolasa graduated from Lakeland High School in 2003 and joined the Army in June 2004.

"He wasn't sure if he wanted to make a career out of it," his mother said. "He wanted to become a mechanic. He knew finances were tight and he knew the Army was the way to do it.

"He was incredibly proud of the country he grew up in," Kathy Kolasa said. "When 9/11 happened, he was so incredibly angry, he wanted to do something for the country he grew up in."

Kolasa wrote a letter to his family - one paragraph for each member - that was to be opened only "in case something happened to him," his mother said. Below his signature he wrote, "Proudly served."

Kolasa had been in Iraq for six months. He and his widow, Cari, 27, would have celebrated their first wedding anniversary Monday.

"They never got to live together as husband and wife," Kathy Kolasa said. "Her term for him was, `He's incredible.'"

Kolasa is also survived by his father, David, and an older sister and brother. His body was expected to be brought to Michigan in seven to 10 days.

"It's never going to be easy, and it's never going to be the same," Kolasa's mother said.

Kolasa was assigned to the 704th Main Support Battalion, 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas.

Two other Fort Hood soldiers died this week, the Pentagon said.

Capt. James A. Funkhouser, 35, of Katy, Texas, was killed Monday by the same car bomb that killed two CBS crew members and seriously injured correspondent Kimberly Dozier. An Iraqi interpreter also was killed in the blast, and six U.S. soldiers were injured.

The other Fort Hood soldier, Spc. Bobby R. West, 23, of Beebe, Ark., died Tuesday from injuries suffered when a roadside bomb detonated near him during patrol.