Maryland's Forty-Fourth Hero

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Army 1st Lt. Robert A. Seidel III, 23, of Emmitsburg, MD.; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.; died May 18 of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations in Baghdad. Also killed were Lt. Col. Daniel E. Holland, Sgt. Lonnie C. Allen Jr. and Pfc. Nicholas R. Cournoyer.

HE LOVED HIS PLATOON MOST OF ALL

Through the glass front door, Sandy Seidel could see the uniformed Army officer who had come to deliver the news, and she thought for a fleeting moment that maybe, if she didn't answer, the man would go away.

"But I knew what it was," she said, as the memory of that moment brought back tears yesterday. For the mother of a son serving in Iraq, "it's your nightmare."

"You always know it's a possibility, but you hope it won't happen," Mr. Seidel said of the death of his son, who had last spoken with his parents on Mother's Day.

"He said he loved us, and he couldn't let Mother's Day go by without calling," Mrs. Seidel said of the 15-minute call. "He was ready to get back home, but he was upbeat and in good spirits."

"He was a great kid," Mrs. Seidel said. "He loved the Lord. He loved his family. He loved his friends. And he loved his platoon. That was the most important thing for him."

His father added: "He believed in the mission in Iraq."

Stephen Seidel, 20, said he had braced himself for the possibility that his brother could die while serving in the war, but he hadn't imagined how he would feel if that day ever came.

"You work yourself up for this, but you don't expect it to happen," he said. "It rips your heart right out of your chest. I'm never going to see him again, and that's the hardest part of this."

He said his brother was a true-blue friend with an unfailing sense of humor and a knack for lightening serious moments.

"The first minute you met him, he'd have you laughing," the younger brother said. "Way back when we were really young, we'd go up to our grandma's attic and get into my uncle's old military uniforms. We'd go out into the woods and play Army. He loved that."