Joseph C. Thibodeaux III Photo courtesy of the Lafayette Advertiser

The young Army specialist was dead, killed near Hawija Wednesday night.

"This is really hard," said his mother, Rebecca Thibodeaux, in a voice softened by grief.

And she could say no more.

But it was not any easier for his father, Joseph C. Thibodeaux II, who took the phone from his wife today in their Lafayette, La., home.

He was at work when the sergeant arrived.

"My wife called me," the elder Thibodeaux said. "I'm sure she knew when she saw him, just as I knew as soon as she said the Army was here."

The younger Thibodeaux was 24 and the fourth of six children. He had told his family he loved his job — he had re-enlisted just last month — but his mother worried, of course.

"One of my ways of pacifying her through all of this and her worrying about our son is that no news is good news," Joseph C. Thibodeaux II said. "I told her don't start crying until you see them in your driveway."

Joseph C. Thibodeaux III was assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, the Army said today. He had been in the Army for three years.

He was on a night patrol when an improvised explosive device exploded beneath the vehicle he was in, his father said. When he son got out, someone shot him, the elder Thibodeaux said.

His son was an Army sharpshooter and his skill with a rifle was a surprising discovery for the rest of the family.

Until he joined the Army, the most powerful weapon he had ever used was a BB gun. All of a sudden, he was winning marksmanship awards and had been invited to join the Army's marksmanship unit at Fort Benning, Ga.

"He loved the military," his father said. "He had found his natural ability, a talent, which is rare."

But as he prepares for a funeral, the father will be thinking of the good things his son had said and done.

"I will remember everything about him," he said, trying hard not to break down. "All of his friends and his mom, they all said, what a good heart he had. You could go to him for anything and he would help."