Walkup   Borm   Carriker

1st Lt. Frank B. Walkup IV, 23, of Woodbury, Tenn., died from injuries sustained in the explosion. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.

Walkup's father, Frank Walkup III, also of Woodbury, Tenn., today said his son "was extremely proud to serve, and he felt like they were making a difference not only in this country, but for the people they were trying to help in Iraq."

Walkup said today would have been his son's 24th birthday and that his family released 24 balloons filled with helium and birthday cards into the air to remember him.

"It's a tragic loss," he said. "We feel like the mission he was on was very noble and very needed and that he served his country well. We're so proud of him. We think he's a fine young man and good leader."

Walkup said his son grew up in a military family and that joining the Army was "kind of a natural progression," according to the Associated Press.

Walkup said he served in the Army and his father fought in Vietnam for the Navy.

"It's a calling," Walkup said. "When you're a family like that, you feel like it's your duty."

Walkup said his son was born in Memphis, graduated from Riverdale High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and then went on to graduate from University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Tenn., where he met his wife, Sabita, the AP said.

Sabita Walkup served as a volunteer assistant coach with the University of Hawai'i women's tennis team in 2005-06, according to the UH Web site.

Women's tennis head coach Jun Hernandez said Sabita Walkup had also played on the team for a semester but is not currently at UH. "But once a family, always a family," Hernandez said.

WalkHe said his son was commissioned to go into Army the day he graduated from UT in 2005 and planned to be a career soldier. He was deployed to go to Iraq in August 2006 and had been there about 10 months.

Walkup is the third soldier based in Hawai'i to die within the past week. On Thursday, 21-year-old Val John Borm of Sidney, Neb., was one of three soldiers killed when a bomb exploded near his Humvee during operations in the Kirkuk province.

On Wednesday, 20-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier Pfc. Casey S. Carriker of Hoquiam, Wash., died in Kirkuk from injuries suffered in a noncombat incident.

Carriker was also assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.

The circumstances of Carriker's death are being investigated by the Army, a Pentagon news release stated.