The Pentagon late Monday identified the third of three 54th Engineer Battalion soldiers killed by a roadside bomb Saturday in Ramadi.
Spc. Joseph P. Micks, 22, of Rapid River, Mich., died along with Staff Sgt. Omar Demetrio Flores and Spc. Troy Carlin Linden, officials said.
The Bamberg, Germany-based 54th Engineer Battalion, which falls under the Hanau-based 130th Engineer Brigade, has been attached to Marine Corps units in Anbar Province since May.
Few details of the attack were available. In recent weeks Marines and 1st Armored Division soldiers have been pushing deeper into Ramadi, long a center of the insurgency in Anbar province.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Micks’ mother, Amy Micks, said he “wanted to go [to Iraq] and make a difference. He wanted to help end things.”
Micks met and married his wife, Ramona, while serving in Germany, family members said.
“He wanted to come home,” Amy Micks said. “He saw too much over there — all of the killing and his friends dying. … He was our hero. He stood up for our land and he gave everything he had.”
A memorial for the three soldiers is scheduled for Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Warner Barracks Chapel in Bamberg. Micks will be buried in Germany, according to instructions he left in case anything happened to him, family members said.