Army 1st Lt. Michael R. Adams

In an e-mail to his family, Michael R. Adams talked of how much he loved his job and of the responsibility he felt toward the 15 soldiers he led. He remained with his platoon longer than he had to because he wanted to return with them to Fort Carson on the unit's last boat home.

"I always tell people that I have the best job in the world, and I can't believe they pay me for this!" he wrote.

Adams, 24, of Seattle, died March 16 riding in a tank west of Baghdad. A passing vehicle collided with the tank, causing a .50-caliber machine gun on a swivel to whip around, striking Adams.

"He died doing what he wanted to do," Adams' father, Don, said.

An Eagle Scout before his 16th birthday, Adams graduated from high school in 1998 with a near-perfect grade-point average. That earned him nominations to the U.S. Naval Academy and to West Point.

Pam Schilz, who had been Adams' guidance counselor, said she is not surprised that the returned members of his platoon in Iraq gave up their family time -- with some even paying their own way to fly to West Point -- to carry his casket.

"I totally understand why. He would always watch out for the people around him," she said.

Army Spc. Richard Arriaga

Richard Arriaga never met his daughter -- but he already was showing signs of spoiling her.

While he was in Iraq, he called home to Ganado, Texas, every week to check on his family, said Arriaga's aunt Dolly Salinas. He was especially concerned about his newborn daughter.

"He'd say, 'I want you to pick her up right now,"' Salinas said. "He would have been a good father. He would have spoiled that child."

Arriaga, 20, died Sept. 18 during an ambush near Tikrit, Iraq.

A week before he left for Iraq, Arriaga married his girlfriend, Maggie, so that the baby girl she was going to give birth to would be born with his name. Little Bianca Mia was a month old when he was killed.

"He wanted everything to be perfect, just in case something happened to him," Salinas said.

After Arriaga's death, his sister decided to name her baby boy Richard.

Army Pfc. Joel K. Brattain

Joel K. Brattain was an avid snowboarder who left the slopes of Lake Tahoe to meet a new challenge: becoming a paratrooper in the Army.

"Joel's motto was 'go big or go home,"' said his father, Gary Brattain.

Brattain, 21, of Orange County, Calif., died March 13 after an explosive struck his military vehicle in Baghdad. He was based at Fort Bragg.

Brattain enlisted in March 2003 after graduating high school and moving to Lake Tahoe to focus on snowboarding, his father said. He deployed to Iraq in January.

He wanted to give something back to his country, his family said.

"He loved this country and he believed in what we were doing," said his brother Kris Brattain, 27. "I'm the older brother but he'll be my hero for the rest of life."

Survivors also include his mother, six siblings and his wife.

Marine Cpl. Andrew D. Brownfield

Cpl. Brownfield

Andrew D. Brownfield volunteered to go to Iraq. He believed in the war and he believed in the Marines.

"He wanted to fight for his country to help prevent any more 9-11's from happening here," said his mother, Melody Roop.

"He walked proud," she said. "He had the Marine look, even in civilian clothes."

Brownfield, 24, of Akron, Ohio, died March 18 in an attack at Al Asad Air Base. He was based in Twentynine Palms.

"He used to tell me he wanted a piece of the action," his fiancee, Michell Hackworth said, explaining his decision to go to Iraq.

But Brownfield's family will also remember his playful side. His mother said she now treasures one of the last messages he left on her answering machine, imitating Forrest Gump.

Army Spc. Doron Chan

Doron Chan had always excelled in school and was well on his way to becoming an engineer when he left for Iraq.

"I remember one of our awards assemblies for sixth-graders, he won almost all of the awards," said Charles Peter Watkins, a retired teacher and athletic director in Highland, N.Y.

Chan, 20, of Highland died March 18 in a vehicle accident near Balad, Iraq. His Army Reserve unit was based in New Windsor, N.Y.

Chan was studying engineering and architecture at the State University of New York at New Paltz when he was called to active duty three months ago.

Chan's father, Tung Kwong Chan, said through a translator that his son was respectful to the elderly, played the drums and enjoyed bicycling and jogging.

He said his only son loved the Army and was a good shooter.

Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Dang

Lance Cpl. Dang

Andrew Dang's varied interests were clear in high school: He worked on the school newspaper, helped start the robotics club, and played on the varsity football and wrestling teams.

"He was polite, he was nice, he was super-loyal and courageous," said Steve Sell, a high school football coach in San Mateo, Calif.

"He was undersized for a defensive lineman, but he didn't back down. He's the kind of kid you would expect to go overseas and do his part because that's the way he was here."

Dang, 20, died March 22 when he was hit by hostile fire during a patrol near Ar Ramady, Iraq.

High school teachers remembered him as a strong student who graduated in the top 10 percent of his class with a 3.7 grade point average. Under his senior yearbook picture, he placed a quote from British novelist Iris Murdoch that summed up his view of life at age 18:

"We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality."

Dang joined the Marines about a month after the start of the war in Iraq and was stationed at Camp Pendleton. He had been in Iraq for two weeks when he was killed.

Survivors include his mother, Antoinette Medina of Foster City, Calif.

Army Pvt. Brandon Lee Davis

Pvt. Davis

Brandon Lee Davis knew full well the dangers of war. He and his mother even talked about them over the phone.

"I said, 'Watch your back, Brandon,"' recalled Jackie Weatherholt of the last conversation she had with her son.

Davis, 20, of Cresaptown, Md., died March 31 when a homemade bomb exploded under his vehicle near Fallujah, Iraq. He was stationed at Fort Riley.

The youngest of three children, Davis enjoyed carpentry and fishing. He joined the Army after high school in hopes of learning a trade, his mother said.

"He was just your average, everyday teenager, basically," Weatherholt said. "He was just one of those all-American kids, the guys who help old women across the street."

Family was the topic of discussion the last time Davis and his father chatted.

"He was laughing and carrying on, asking about his sister and his brother and stuff like that," said Jeffrey A. Davis.

"And he was happy to be doing what he did," Davis said.

Army Master Sgt. Richard Ferguson

Family members say Richard Ferguson had come to terms with the dangers of the military job he loved. Before he left for another tour of duty in Iraq, he wrote a will and picked out a cemetery plot.

Ferguson, 45, with the Army's Special Forces unit at Fort Carson, had served in Bosnia, Germany, Iraq and elsewhere, but his missions and deployments were often kept secret.

"What went on, he left at work or with the guys," said his father, Lee Ferguson Sr. "When he came home, he laughed, he joked, he went camping with the kids, he went on trips, he worked around the house."

Ferguson, a native of Coventry, R.I., who lived in Woodland Park, Colo., died March 30 in Somara, Iraq, after the military vehicle he was riding in rolled over.

Ferguson dropped out of high school at age 17 and later earned his GED. He joined the Army, becoming a career military man.

"Once he got in, he loved it and he stayed with it. That was his home," he father said.

He was also a history buff, and spent 20 years putting together a family tree tracing his roots back to the 1700s, the family said.

Survivors include his wife and three sons, ages 4, 8 and 10, and a 23-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.

Army Spc. Adam Froehlich

Spc. Froehlich

Adam Froehlich was moved to join the Army following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He wound up being sent to Iraq -- and died in a roadside explosion three weeks after arriving there.

"He was just a great person who loved his family, loved his country and believed in what he was fighting for," said his brother, Jeff Froehlich.

Adam Froehlich, 21, of Pine Hill, N.J., died March 25. Stationed in Germany, he had hoped to pursue a college education after serving in the military and wanted to become a gym teacher.

Froehlich had expressed concern before he went to Iraq.

"Who wouldn't?" his brother said. "But he was very willing to go. He knew he was doing it for his country."

He said his brother had been deeply moved by the Sept. 11 attacks. "That was really emotional for us," Jeff Froehlich said. "My brother loved his country."

Army Spc. Jeremiah J. Holmes

Spc. Holmes

For more than a decade, Jeremiah J. Holmes never gave up hope that his mother's murderer would be prosecuted. He died without that hope fulfilled.

Holmes, 29, was killed March 29 when his vehicle hit a bomb and fell from a bridge near Balad, Iraq. He is survived by his wife and 11-month-old son.

Holmes, who attended high school in North Berwick, Maine, was 13 when his mother, Sheila Holmes, was murdered in Dover, N.H., in 1990.

Her death broke up the family and Holmes was raised by his grandparents. His four brothers and sisters went to two other families.

"I'd like to see a little bit of closure for us," he said two years ago. "You're not going to forget about your mother, you're not going to forget about your sister. You're not going to forget the 12 years or how many other years it takes to find a conviction. Nothing will ever be closed totally."

Despite the hardship, his sister was impressed by his good cheer.

"Even though we had a tough childhood, he was always looking on the bright side of life," Selena Gately said.

Army Pfc. Christopher E. Hudson

Christopher E. Hudson's mom noticed something special about her child when he was in the second grade.

As he flipped through a book, Sally Hudson thought he was only looking at pictures. But when she asked him questions, she said, she realized he had taught himself how to speed-read.

Christopher Hudson, 21, died March 21 after his Humvee drove over a bomb outside Baghdad. He was based at Fort Hood.

He attended high school in Carmel, Ind., but left because the curriculum wasn't challenging, his mother said. He earned a GED certificate instead.

Before his death, Hudson had survived two other attacks on his Humvee and a confrontation at a checkpoint with a man who threatened to kill him with a machine gun, Sally Hudson said. Her son reacted quickly and shot him.

"He didn't tell me that was the only person he had to kill," she said. "But he left here a boy, and I didn't hear that in his voice. All the boy was gone. It was just soldier and man."

He also is survived by his wife, Michelle, and their two young children.

Army 1st Lt. Doyle M. Hufstedler

Doyle M. Hufstedler was seeking a 15-day leave so he could return home to hold his baby, due in May.

By telephone, Hufstedler and his wife Leslie agreed on a name for their baby: Grace Ashley.

Hufstedler, 25, of Abilene, Texas, died March 31 in Habbaniyah, Iraq, when a bomb detonated under the armored personnel carrier he was in.

Hufstedler met his wife at Texas A&M University three years ago, proposing to her in the end zone at halftime of a football game. They celebrated their first wedding anniversary in August and learned Leslie was pregnant.

Less than a week later, Hufstedler was sent to Iraq.

Army Spc. Michael G. Karr Jr.

Michael G. Karr decided the Army was a better place for him to be and dropped out of the University of Texas.

"He was not really finding his path," said his father, Greg Karr.

But soldiering agreed with him, his father said.

Karr, 23, of San Antonio, was killed March 31 in Habbaniyah, Iraq, when a bomb detonated under the armored personnel carrier he was in.

In high school, Karr had been a standout on the swim team, which his mother coached. He came home before Christmas after months in Iraq because his paternal grandfather died.

"He said he was doing what he wanted to do and he was proud to be serving his country," said his half-sister, Erin Sine. "He knew what he wanted to do."

Greg Karr said son had loved being a medic.

"He was looking at re-upping because he really liked his medic position, so he was looking at getting himself promoted within those ranks and learn more in the medical field," the father said.

Army Pfc. Bruce Miller Jr.

Bruce Miller Jr. counted art, poetry and writing among his interests, and his family described him as "a kind, thoughtful and religious young man who loved his family."

He graduated in 1999 from the Teaneck, N.J., Community School, which serves students with learning disabilities, and also received a diploma from Orange High School in his home district.

"Junior wanted to go to college after his Army enlistment tour was over and had become interested in studying law," his family said in a statement.

Miller, 23, of Orange, N.J., died March 22 in Mosul, Iraq, from a noncombat gunshot wound.

James Steel, vice principal of the Teaneck Community School, described Miller as a "thoughtful, bright kid" and "a good runner" who participated in the school's intramural track and field events.

"He was a great kid, very energetic, engaging," Steel said. "He seemed like a full human being. Many people are going to be saddened."