"That's the way he was," said Anthony Wobler. "A true leader and a true hero."
His stepfather, Tim Poston of Scott County, Va., said medics had to sedate an angry Wobler, who demanded he be taken back to his troops while he was being transported for surgery.
"He was just so mad they had got him," Poston said. "He was wanting to get back out there. Now, if the U.S. doesn't understand the kind of men they've got, that's it right there. That's a hero."
His father has not heard all the details from the military, but was able to put together what happened through e-mails with soldiers in his son's unit.
Wobler's mother, Jeanette Poston, said her son still called the southwest Virginia town of Snowflake home, although he had moved with his father to Ottawa, Ohio, before entering high school.
"He told people he was a southern boy from Virginia," Jeannette Poston said.
Wobler had served an 11-month tour of duty in 2003, when he injured his knee. Jeanette Poston said doctors told her son in November he needed knee surgery, but he refused, opting instead to return to Iraq the next month.
Wobler had joined the Army full time in 2000 after serving in Ohio's National Guard. In 2002, he was selected as the 82nd Airborne's paratrooper of the year.
Zachary Wobler had been legally separated from his wife, Corissa, for about two years. She lives in Parma, Ohio, with their 3-year-old daughter, Trinity.
Anthony Wobler said he often exchanged e-mails with his son and that his son was worried that not enough troops were in place. He also said that the Iraqi people needed to fight for the freedom as much as the troops were doing.
He said his son had the highest respect for the military. Wobler joined the Ohio National Guard in 1998 after graduating from Ottawa-Glandorf High School.
He then joined the Army and was named the 82nd Airborne's paratrooper of the year in 2002.
In high school, Wobler played football, ran track and was named the school's senior homecoming attendant.
In 2002, he was named the 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper of the year. In an interview in May 2002 with The Fayetteville Observer about his selection, Zachary Wobler discussed his feelings about deployment.
"Nobody knows 'til it comes down to it whether you are ready or not," he said.
He attributed his success in the Army to his father.
"My father was big on honesty when I was young," he said in 2002. "That's one thing that was drilled into our family when I was young."
His family said Wobler's body arrived at Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday, and that he will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. No time or date had been set for the funeral.
Sgt. Zachary Wobler, 24, a member of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, was shot several times, including once in the chest, after his unit was pinned down in a warehouse during a firefight, said his father, Anthony Wobler.