About three weeks ago, Marine Lance Cpl. Travis T. Babine's heavily armored vehicle rolled over a pressure-detonated roadside bomb in southwestern Afghanistan.

There were five Marines inside. The bomb blew off the rear wheel and axle with such force that it sent the parts flying 120 feet.

But Babine, 20, and the other Marines in the hulking Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle were unhurt.

On Thursday, Babine wasn't so lucky. He and two other Kane'ohe Bay Marines, along with a Marine out of Okinawa, Japan, were killed when their thinner-skinned Humvee hit a roadside bomb in Farah province, according to family.

It was another of the deadly bombs by which U.S. service members are increasingly being killed in Afghanistan.

Alice Babine, Travis' mother, yesterday said in a shaky voice that her strong faith was helping carry her through the death of her son.

"That's how you get through these things," she said by phone from Texas. "I'm confident that Travis is with God now and I'm confident that I'll see him again. God doesn't owe me an explanation, and I don't demand one. But one day, I'll understand."

The Pentagon yesterday announced the deaths of the three Kane'ohe Bay Marines, a day after a Kane'ohe Bay sailor also died in a roadside bomb attack in the same region.

The Hawai'i Marines also killed Thursday in Farah province were: Lance Cpl. James D. Argentine, 22, of Farmingdale, N.Y.; and Sgt. Jay M. Hoskins, 24, of Paris, Texas. Babine was from San Antonio.

Marine Cpl. Christian A. Guzman Rivera, 21, of Homestead, Fla., who also was killed, was out of Okinawa, Japan.

The three riflemen from Kane'ohe Bay were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.

About 1,000 Hawai'i Marines with the 2nd Battalion arrived in Helmand and Farah provinces in late May, part of a surge of 21,000 additional U.S. troops ordered by President Obama into an increasingly restive Afghanistan.

The Marines are expected to be in the country seven months.

A Hawai'i-based sailor serving as a corpsman with the Marines died Wednesday in Farah Province, the Pentagon had announced Thursday.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Anthony C. Garcia, 21, of Panama City, Fla., also died in a roadside bomb blast. Navy corpsmen are assigned to Marine units and have jobs similar to those of an Army medic.

At least six members of the 2nd Battalion now have been killed in southwestern Afghanistan in less than three months time — all by improvised explosive devices.

ANXIOUS TO SERVE

Travis Babine had called his father, Bill Badger, and told him roadside bombs "were a serious problem and it was one of the most difficult things to deal with."

Travis Babine joined the Marines immediately out of high school as part of the delayed entry program and reported to boot camp in January 2008, his mother said.

The deployment to Afghanistan was his first. His parents had served in the Army but Travis Babine had always wanted to be a Marine.

"He wanted to do something really difficult," his mother said. She tried to convince him to go to college first and get a commission. Her son decided college could wait a bit.

"He was convinced that he would make a better officer if he served a tour as an enlisted man," Alice Babine said.

The quiet Marine who was a voracious reader and spent a lot of time involved in gaming and painting miniature models in high school was based at Forward Operating Base Bakwa, one of the westernmost outposts maintained by the 2nd Battalion.

The desert terrain was once part of an old caravan route and the austere Marine base is built up against the wall of one of the way stations.

Eleven Americans have been killed in Afghanistan in August. A major U.S. offensive in neighboring southern Helmand province may have had the effect of pushing militants into Farah province, military officials said.

According to the Web site www.icasualties.org, which tracks casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, 143 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom so far this year, compared to 155 for all of 2008.

The Pentagon yesterday said the Marines died "while supporting combat operations." The statement is more ambiguous than in the past and is a recent Pentagon departure from years of standard practice in which the cause of death — whether a roadside bomb, gunshot, indirect fire attack or other means — was reported to the public.

Hoskins joined the Marines in August 2003 and reported to Hawai'i in January, officials said.

Argentine joined the Corps in October of 2006 and reported to Hawai'i in January 2007. He had previously deployed with the 2nd Battalion from January to August 2008, according to the Corps.