Sgt. James Kesinger , 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, Dec. 13, 2005

Technology and his own sense of obligation played decisive roles in James Kesinger 's short, happy life.

Technology - specifically the Internet - shaped his personal life. While stationed in Iraq in 2003, he met his future wife in cyberspace. Taken with Juanita Zuniga, Kesinger used his two-week break later that year to fly to Texas and meet her for the first time in person. "He came to the door one day and met her. They went out and ate and talked a long time. By the end of his break, he'd bought the rings, proposed to her and they got married right away," her father, Jesus, told the McAllen, Tex. Monitor. "They understood each other."

Kesinger was not originally scheduled to return to Iraq in 2005. But when a unit was desperate for medics - his specialty - he volunteered to go with them.

Kesinger , 32, of Pharr, Texas, was killed with three other members of that unit Dec. 13, 2005 when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle northwest of Baghdad. He was assigned to Fort Riley.

He was one of two male cheerleaders in high school, where he graduated in 1992. He also ran track, played football and was in the school band.