Capt. James Adamouski, 29, of Springfield, Va., had flown more than a thousand hours in Black Hawks. When his mother would fret about the danger Adamouski would promise to fly low and fast. He was not piloting the day he died.

A star soccer player at West Point, Adamouski played semipro soccer when stationed in Germany. He had big plans: He had just been accepted at the Harvard Business School and he hoped to teach economics at West Point. He married just seven months ago.

In his last message home — to his wife, Meighan, on March 30 — Adamouski wrote of his eagerness to be home, fears about the war and his confidence in his men.

“The conventional Iraqi Army forces are no match,” he wrote. “However, the crazy Iraqi with a bomb strapped to his chest or a shoulder-fired missile is what scares me the most.”

— USA Today