SHARON, Pa. — A soldier formerly from western Pennsylvania was killed in Iraq when a military wrecker he was riding in rolled over, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Pfc. Douglas Kashmer, 27, who was assigned to the Army’s 70th Transportation Company, was killed almost instantly when the vehicle rolled over in Nippur, Iraq, on June 8, said his mother, Carol Kashmer, of Cookeville, Tenn.

“He didn’t suffer. He’s going to be deeply missed by everyone, and I’m the proudest mother you’d ever meet,” she said.

The Defense Department said Kashmer’s vehicle wasn’t involved in combat when it rolled over.

Carol Kashmer said her son, who worked as a diesel mechanic, had wanted to be in the Army since he was a child.

Born in South Carolina, Kashmer graduated in 1996 from Reynolds High School in Greenville, about 70 miles northwest in Pittsburgh, where he played football.

He joined the Army in 1997 and briefly lived in Sharon before he was stationed in Mannheim, Germany, with his wife, Toni Kashmer, and their daughter, Kashmaria, 3.

Before he left, he got a tattoo of his daughter’s face on his calf. “That was the only way he could think of to take her with him,” his mother said.