Michael A. Pursel

Thursday, May 10 2007 @ 05:49 AM EDT

Deseret Newws -- Just over a month after deploying to Iraq, 19-year-old Pfc. Michael A. Pursel was killed when a bomb destroyed his vehicle in the Diyala province on Sunday.

Pursel was sent to the war-torn country March 26, the second tour for the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment to which he belonged.

Pursel's mother, Terry Dutcher of Hooper, told The Olympian newspaper in Washington that he died doing what he wanted to do. Calls made to her home Monday night by the Deseret Morning News were not returned.

"He was one of the first ones to raise his hand to go," she said about her son's volunteering to replace soldiers from the Army base in Fort Lewis, Wash. Pursel was one of six Fort Lewis soldiers killed in the blast. Two others were wounded, and a European journalist was also killed, however, the Department of Defense could not confirm the identities of those killed.

Steve Bradley, a friend of Pursel's and a pastor at the Christian Life Church in Lacey, Wash., where Pursel attended, told The Olympian that Pursel was not worried about dying in Iraq, after recently becoming a Christian.

"He went the way he wanted to go ... fighting for his country," Bradley said. He also said the family's feelings on the war had not changed due to Pursel's death.

"There's one thread of hope in this," he said. "They knew he gave his life to Christ."

Pursel was assigned to the Army's 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, after joining, and he later volunteered for his current assignment.

Pursel's father and mother have served in the military, and his mother is still serving. The family lived in Lacey while his father was stationed at Fort Lewis. In 2000, the family moved to Utah when Dutcher accepted a transfer from the Army to the Air Force Reserve, where she now serves at Hill Air Force Base.

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