VICENZA, Italy — It’s unlikely that most of those attending the memorial service Thursday for a soldier killed in Afghanistan had a chance to know Pfc. Steven Tucker.

But a few hundred Americans and Italians paid their respects and listened to a few soldiers who did know him.

Tucker, killed Saturday by an improvised explosive device while on a mounted patrol, arrived in Vicenza in January — just a few months before the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment deployed to Afghanistan.

“Even though he was new and had only been with us a short while, he had no problem at all fitting in with the other guys on the team,” said Spc. John Catlett.

Three other soldiers were wounded by the roadside bomb. Two were treated for minor wounds and are back with their unit. Another was severely wounded and is receiving treatment at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

Tucker, who turned 19 in January, was serving at his first duty station after completing basic training and airborne school following high school graduation.

He was born in Victoria, Texas, on Jan. 6, 1986. He is survived by his parents, Charles and Rowena.

His unit lauded Tucker’s actions in Afghanistan, citing an early mission in which he traded gunfire in a confrontation with enemy forces.

“Pfc. Tucker was a quintessential paratrooper,” said Capt. Robert Curtis, the battalion’s rear detachment commander, reading over a number of definitions. One of those, he said, identified Tucker as “hero.”

Most active-duty personnel based in Vicenza are serving in Afghanistan these days. But Curtis issued a call to soldiers who did attend the memorial as well as those serving elsewhere.

“Fight the fight that Pfc. Tucker fought, that his sacrifice will not be in vain,” he said.

Tucker is the 14th soldier from the Southern European Task Force (Airborne) to die while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan in the past three years. Nine soldiers serving with the 173rd Airborne Brigade died in Iraq and four soldiers from SETAF died in April when their CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed.