KISSIMMEE, Fla. — A 21-year-old soldier who dropped out of college to join the Army out of a sense of patriotic duty was killed in Baghdad when his military vehicle struck an explosive device.

Spc. Jeff LeBrun was assigned to the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, N.Y.

His father, Joseph LeBrun, 50, said Army representatives told him his son was driving to a hospital Saturday when the explosion occurred.

LeBrun quit his computer studies to join the Army. He wanted to ease the financial strain on his parents, who are Haitian immigrants, friends and family members said. His father, a painter, has a bad back after years of work as a welder, and his mother makes sandwiches at the Orlando Sentinel cafeteria.

The LeBruns moved to Kissimmee from New York in June 2002 to escape the cold. Lebrun cited the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as his reason for joining the Army.

“He was a really, really, really sweet, sweet young man,” his mother Daniela LeBrun said Monday. “I am lost now.”