Kevin L. Zeigler

Thursday, August 17 2006 @ 04:40 AM MDT

Kansas City Star -- Staff Sgt. Kevin L. Zeigler, 31, of Braymer, Mo., died Saturday in Baghdad, Iraq, when a roadside bomb exploded, the Defense Department reported.

Zeigler’s family was told that he and another soldier died while trying to disable the explosive.

"He told the rest of them to stay back, and they went to disarm it," said Keith Mallory, Zeigler’s stepfather.

Zeigler was based at Fort Hood, Texas.

He is survived by his wife and four children, the youngest of whom is a toddler, Mallory said.

Braymer is a town of about 960 people about 80 miles northeast of Kansas City. The American flag was lowered to half-staff at the post office and City Hall, Mallory said.

Growing up in Braymer, Zeigler loved hunting, fishing and football, Mallory said. He was 5 feet 7 inches or 5 feet 8 inches tall, but tough — when he was a youth, he regularly got into scraps, his stepfather said. "He’s just a pure-blood, American boy."

Zeigler lived for a short time in Overland Park after he left the Army after his first enlistment. That is where he met his wife, Stacy, Mallory said.

A memorial service has not been scheduled, but will likely be in the Kansas City area.

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