CBCNews -- The Canadian killed Monday in an attack south of Baghdad was a dedicated soldier and well aware of the risks of his job with the U.S. Army in Iraq, his mother said Wednesday.

When they drove to the airport to say goodbye, Cpl. Michael Seeley would try to prepare his family for the worst, Theresa Seeley said in an interview with CBC News from her home in Fredericton.

"He'd say to me, 'You know mom, what my job is. I will be going and I will be fighting and it's very dangerous. And the chances of my getting hurt or killed are great. And you have to know that this is what I want to do. This is my life, and this is my job, and know that if it happens, I go doing my job.' "

Despite that, Seeley said she still believed it was a mistake when the RCMP officers turned up at her door Monday evening to give her the news that Michael was dead.

She describes him as a sports fanatic, who loved to mountain bike and race.

 "I always thought his sports would kill him, I never thought the war would kill him. He knew his job. He was well trained and he took great pride in his training. I really thought he would come home."

Seeley, 27, was on a training exercise showing replacement troops which roads to patrol when his convoy was attacked. He died just days before he was expected to return to his home base in Fort Hood, Tex.

Seeley, a Mi'kmaq and the second of six children, joined the Canadian Forces in 1998 then enlisted with the U.S. Marines the following year. After four years with the Marines, he signed up for the U.S. Army.

Theresa Seeley said her son was home to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, but volunteered to return to Iraq early to give his colleagues a longer break. She said he was supposed to be back in Texas on Oct. 28 but his stay was extended until Nov. 5.

"He should have been home on Saturday," she said. "He should have been back in Texas in Saturday."

She last spoke to her son on the phone last Saturday, and said he was looking forward to getting back so he could take a trip to Mexico with his friends in November, before coming home to celebrate Christmas with his family.

During that conversation, Seeley told his mother that his convoy had been fired on during a recent training exercise. 

"His comment was, 'I almost bit the dust today,' " she said. "And he always joked about things like that, tried to make light of it.

"I said, 'How many more days, Michael?' [He said,] 'Only four more days and I'll be safe, Mom.'

"I said, 'Please keep your head down,'  and he said, 'Don't worry Mom, they won't get the best.' Well on Monday they did."

Seeley served with the Marines in Japan, South America, Africa and Iraq before getting an honourable discharge after four years.  He then joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in Fort Hood when he was deployed to Iraq.

Seeley's body will be brought to the U.S. Army base in Dover, Del., for an autopsy before returning to Fredericton for burial.