"We all waited for two hours in a hot gymnasium in Killeen," said Jordan, 16, a Carroll High School student. "It was miserable, sweat streaming down our backs, but when he came in with his big smile it was worth it. I hugged him, and didn't want to let go.

"My brother is my hero, everything I could ask for in a brother, and I'll miss him dearly."

Lloyd was one of two Fort Hood soldiers killed Saturday in Baghdad by an improvised explosive device that detonated near their patrol. The Army initially reported the 2000 Carroll High School graduate was a resident of San Antonio because he was living with his father there when he enlisted.

"It's been a very long wait since Saturday," said his mother, Margaret Lloyd, 57, who adopted him at 5 weeks old. "Chad's body is still in Dover, Del., and we're waiting to learn what flight will bring him, we hope to have him home by Friday."

The family, who were gathered in Sulphur Springs, has planned the funeral tentatively for 3 p.m. Sunday at First Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs, where Lloyd's father, James Lloyd, now lives.

His wife, Jessica, 23, and 3-year-old son, James Thomas, live at Fort Hood in Killeen, where she also serves in the Army. She wasn't ready to talk Wednesday, family members said.

Both Lloyd and his sister, Amber C. Davisson, 27, of West Tawakoni, were adopted.

"We knew how lucky we were to be placed with good parents," Davisson said by phone from her home east of Dallas. "Our younger brother was the miracle child, but we've all always been a close family."

Lloyd will be buried beside his grandmother, Sarah Francis Lloyd, who he called "Mamommy," his family said. "She and Chad were middle children," said Margaret Lloyd, who works in the pharmacy at Bay Area Medical Center. "She always bonded with Chad and he stuck close to her, especially when she baked him chocolate pies, and made his favorite strawberry fruit salad."

Lloyd's father talked with him two weeks ago, and received a letter Tuesday.

"His letter talked about the future," said James "Jimmy" Lloyd, 56. "I could tell his mood by the way it started," he said. "Sometimes it was 'Dear Dad,' but this time he started it 'Pops, how's everything back in the States '

"He told me weeks ago there were a lot of those IEDs, and it was really pretty bad," Lloyd said. "All I could tell him was just be safe, and he'd say, 'Dad I'm always as safe as I can be.'

"This is the most terrible thing a parent can have happen, he made the ultimate sacrifice for us," James Lloyd said. "He was a great family man, soldier and hero."

Davisson also received a letter Tuesday from her brother, who would have returned home in October from his second tour in Iraq.

"Chad was looking forward to being home, wearing normal clothes, and taking his little boy to the park," she said. "My best memory was his first birthday during the worst snowstorm after we moved to Colorado," Davisson said. "All we could make for him was one little cupcake with one little candle on it, and he was the happiest little kid, who didn't even know he should have had a whole cake."

Davisson and her brother were close through high school, although he ran with soccer team friends, she said. "I never realized until recently that Chad was always there for me," she said. "A lot of people thought he was my older brother because he was so tall." Chad was about 6 feet tall, she said.

Lloyd had strong competitive spirit, said Jon Bonilla, 50, a Padre Island attorney who coached him in the mid-1990s in the Padre Island Soccer League.

"He played sweeper, the last defender before the ball gets to the goalie," Bonilla said. "Chad was very fast, and an aggressive player. Attackers didn't get by him without losing their stride from a shoulder-to-shoulder fight. He was the goalie's best friend, and my son played goalie."

Lloyd's mother admires her son.

"I feel so honored to have been Chad's mother the past 24 years," she said, tears welling. "My hat goes off to him.

"Chad was on this earth for a reason," she said. "He accomplished the purpose God gave him - and he aced it."