Spc. Arron R. Clark left high school early to join the Army, dreamed of becoming an elite Airborne Ranger and was part of the first wave of soldiers deployed to Iraq. But by December, he was anxiously awaiting his return home. "He wanted out of Iraq so bad. All he was seeing was dead soldiers," said his mother, Lyne. Clark, 20, of Chico, Calif., was killed Dec. 5 by a remote-control bomb that struck the convoy he was riding in as it traveled through Baghdad. He was stationed in Darmstadt, Germany. Clark received a General Equivalency Diploma so he could leave high school to enlist in the Army, where he specialized in detection and decontamination of biological warfare agents. He had just been accepted to the Airborne Ranger training school, his mother said. Clark's aunt, Robin Clark, said he always wanted his family to be proud of him. "He knew if he didn't get out of Chico, he wasn't going to get anywhere," Robin Clark said. "He wanted to make something of himself."

— Associated Press