The News Journal --A 2001 Padua High School graduate was one of three Air Force troops killed Sunday in a bomb blast near Baghdad, the Pentagon said today.

Senior Airman Elizabeth A. Loncki, 23, a New Castle native, was the first Delaware woman killed in the line of duty in Iraq and the 66th female American soldier there.

"She wanted to contribute to the country," said Loncki’s aunt, Tina Masiello, adding that Loncki expressed no reservations about going to Iraq. "She was ready to go, it was a cause she deeply believed in. She told us not to worry."

Loncki, who was deployed to Iraq in August, was scheduled to return home in two weeks, her family said. Her boyfriend, Sgt. Jayson Johnson, who was stationed with her at Fort Hill Air Force Base in Utah, had planned to visit the family’s New Castle home Thursday to ask her father’s permission to marry her, Masiello said.

Instead, Stephen Loncki got a visit Sunday afternoon from three men in uniform. He was taking down Christmas decorations at his New Castle home when they arrived.

"He knew right away what it was," said his wife, Christine Loncki.

Loncki’s eldest daughter, they told him, died after her explosive ordnance disposal team was targeted by a car bomber near Al-Mahmudiyah.

Now, Johnson will serve as a military escort for Loncki’s body as it is transported to the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base and prepared for burial. Her body is to arrive early this morning at Dover Air Force Base and remain there for at least 48 hours, before she is turned over to her family in New Castle.

"She was a beautiful, beautiful child," a tearful Stephen Loncki said of his eldest daughter. "She loved her family and her family loved her. We miss her so much." Loncki last spoke to her family on Christmas Eve, as she opened presents her father had sent.

"I sent her a DVD of a concert and some popcorn, and filled her stockings with a bunch of Christmas goodies," said Loncki, adding that he also sent several news magazines after her daughter said she and her fellow soldiers didn’t get a lot of information.

"She sounded melancholy," Loncki recalled. "She knew her family was together and you could tell she felt far away. … She was happy to talk to us, but a little sad, too, because she was so far away."

Elizabeth Loncki attended St. Peter the Apostle grade school and graduated from Padua Academy in Wilmington in 2001, where she played volleyball. She briefly attended the University of Arizona before enlisting in the Air Force.

Masiello described her niece as a faithful Catholic who enjoyed rock music and swimming, and whose beauty belied an athletic toughness evidenced by her success on Padua’s volleyball team and her ability to match boys push-up for push-up.

Her death brings the U.S. death toll in Iraq to 3,014, and comes during a week when President Bush is expected to announce plans to send more American troops into Iraq.

Killed in the same blast as Loncki were Tech. Sgt. Timothy R. Weiner, 35, of Tamarac, Fla., and Senior Airman Daniel B. Miller Jr., 24, Galesburg, Ill. The three were assigned to the 775th Civil Engineer Squadron at Hill Air Force Base.

"There was a car with a suspected bomb in it they were investigating when in exploded," said Marilu Trainor, public affairs director at Hill Air Force Base.

Trainor said Loncki was a member of the bomb squad, the 447th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron. Daily, she said, the unit would venture out into areas in and around Baghdad, investigating suspicious vehicles to see if there were bombs inside that had to be detonated.

The bomb inside the car they were working on exploded while they were trying to disarm it, she said.

"It’s part of their mission every day," Trainor said. "It’s not unusual for them to do these missions. It takes nerves to do what they do."