Morning Call -- When Luis O. Rodriguez-Contrera called his pregnant wife from Iraq last week, she knew he was going through a terrible ordeal.
"You want me to lie or do you want me to tell you the truth?" he said after she asked how he was doing.
On Friday, two days after the phone call, Baghdad's violence caught up with 22-year-old Army Spc. Rodriguez-Contrera of Allentown.
He and another soldier were killed when a roadside bomb detonated near their vehicle while they patrolled the capital, the Department of Defense said earlier today.
Five months pregnant with their first child, Monica Rodriguez heard the news from two Army officers who came to see her Friday night. "I can't fall apart," she said. "It's just a horrible dream. It's just a nightmare and he's going to be here."
The man who had given her "the most incredible time of my life" joined the Army in August 2005 and arrived at Fort Hood, Texas, for training in January 2006.
He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.
Before he left for Iraq in November 2006, he told his wife, "Baby, I promise you I'm coming back," she said.
Rodriguez-Contrera became the 20th person in the Lehigh Valley region or with ties to the region to die in Iraq and Afghanistan.