Staff Sgt. Sean Landrus , Jan. 29, 2004

Sean G. Landrus hated being behind a desk, so much that he declined an office job to serve in a combat zone.

" Sean died doing what he wanted to do," said his mother, Betty Landrus . "His wife talked to him the week before he was injured, and she said he sounded the best he had in a long time." Landrus , 31, of Thompson, Ohio, died Jan. 29, 2004, from injuries he suffered when a roadside bomb exploded two days earlier near Khaldiyah, Iraq. He was stationed at Fort Riley.

The youngest of six children, Landrus excelled in football, basketball and track in high school and was known for his competitive spirit.

"He hated to be taken out of a game or anything when he was playing sports. If he got an injury or anything, he'd bug the coach to send him back out there," his mother said.

Landrus attended Kent State University before enlisting in the Army. He married Chris, his high school sweetheart, in 1995. The couple had three children. His 12-year-old daughter, Khrista, clutched an American flag and wept softly at her father's burial in northeast Ohio.