Contra Costa Times -- CONCORD - Like many young men, Benjamin Zieske saw the military as an opportunity. It was his ticket to an education and a better life.

That promise was cut short Wednesday when the Army private first class from Concord was killed by a roadside bomb in Kirkuk, Iraq.

A scout assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, Zieske was on foot patrol in the town about 180 miles north of Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonated near him, the Department of Defense reported Monday.

The former Olympic High School student died two weeks shy of his 21st birthday, his mother, Laurie Zieske, said Monday.

"I was so proud of him," she said, recalling her youngest son. "He was a great kid, a great boyfriend, a great uncle. He was my heart."

The young soldier grew up in a modest beige home on the well-trafficked Willow Pass Road near the business district of Todos Santos Plaza.

Zieske said her son was not particularly happy about fighting in Iraq. When he was home on leave in January, Benjamin recounted stories of bombings and bloodshed. It was early in his tour, yet the young soldier's encounters with devastation and warfare seemed to have already changed the boy she knew.

"He went over as a boy and died as a man," Zieske said. "I could tell. He had grown up. He was more mature, less selfish."

The Concord mother said her son had adopted a pair of wayward kittens at his base in Iraq. But he wanted to return home, he had a girlfriend waiting for him.

Still, Laurie Zieske says the young man was determined to join the Army last March as a way to improve his life. He hoped that eventually he would go to college and later become a Concord police officer.

"He wanted to get on his own," Zieske said. "I agreed because I wanted him to get out of Concord and do better than us."

Zieske's older brother, Shawn, recently graduated from the Navy's boot camp. He is currently doing advanced computer technology training at a base in the United States and is not expected to be deployed to Iraq.

"I told (Shawn) I didn't want him to go too," Laurie Zieske said. "I don't want to lose another son. But I didn't want to stand in his way."

A videotaped message wishing his family a happy Easter is the last image Zieske has of her son Benjamin. She had no idea the video clip existed until it was shown to her for the first time a few days ago. She broke down crying.

Zieske will keep with her the image of her son smiling.

"I'll remember the way he laughed," Laurie recalled. "You could never stay mad at him long."