Centre Daily -- PONCA CITY, Okla. - An Army soldier from Pittsburgh who died in Iraq last week signed up for the military in Oklahoma years ago while he was drifting through a number of states, his mother said Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Sgt. John A. Carroll, 26, died Wednesday in Ramadi from small arms fire during a dismounted security patrol.

Maj. Wayne Marotto, with the 1st Armored Division in Wiesbaden, Germany, said Carroll and the other members of his unit were providing security and searching for enemy fighters and weapons.

"They're looking for the bad guys, that's for sure," said Marotto, who described the Ramadi area as lawless. "They've gotten into some pretty tough fighting there."

Carroll died after being shot in the leg, Marotto said.

Carroll's mother, Dawn Petrakovitz of Pittsburgh, said her son was a Pittsburgh native who left the East Coast after high school to find work in the late 1990s and traveled through several states, including Oklahoma. He enlisted in Ponca City.

"He was kind of drifting at the time," she said.

"He called me the moment he signed the (enlistment) paper," Petrakovitz said. "He said, 'Mom, you're not going to be happy about this.'"

Petrakovitz said he was humble about his military service.

"He said, 'I never knew what to say because I'm just doing my job,'" Petrakovitz said.

Carroll is survived by a wife, Jessica, who is living in Germany, where he was stationed. Carroll was assigned to the Army 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division out of Baumholder, Germany.

Carroll and his wife married while he was on leave last year. They would have celebrated their first anniversary later this month, Petrakovitz said. The couple did not have any children.

Petrakovitz said her son always had a good sense of humor and enjoyed camping and mountain climbing.

"When he was 9 years old he said he wanted to be the Bob Hope of his generation," Petrakovitz said.

A service is being planned for Carroll in McMinnville, Tenn., where he and his wife planned to live.

As of Monday, at least 2,670 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Carroll is thought to be the 51st Oklahoman to die in the conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan.