Pfc. Joseph I. Love completed basic combat training in July, was assigned to Schofield Barracks that same month, and left for Iraq in December, Army officials said.

On Sunday, the 22-year-old became the first 84th Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy) soldier to be killed in the brief time the unit has spent in the country.

Trained as a combat engineer, Love was serving in Bravo Company as a carpentry and masonry specialist. He died in Balad when a roadside bomb hit his Humvee during convoy operations, the Pentagon said.

Battalion commander Lt. Col. Mark Toy said in an e-mail that the loss reminded all how dangerous the mission remains in Iraq.

"I feel an enormous sense of loss, for in my heart, all of the soldiers in my unit are my sons and daughters as well," Toy said. "My heart goes out to Joseph's family during this tremendously difficult time."

A memorial was held for the North Pole, Alaska, soldier on Monday at Logistics Support Area Anaconda north of Baghdad, where the battalion of nearly 500 soldiers is primarily based.

Love's father told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner he was a little surprised by his son's move to join the Army, but supported the decision.

The family kept in touch via e-mail. Love didn't talk much about work, but commented on the Iraqi children he encountered.

"He liked to see the kids' faces," his stepmother, Nisha Harris-Fowler, told the newspaper. "He liked to see them smile."

Love graduated from Fairbanks Youth Academy, an alternative school. His father told the News-Miner that part of the reason he joined the Army was to eventually attend college and study architecture.

Toy said Love will be remembered.

"We will never be the same without him, but through this tragedy we will grow stronger as a unit," he said.

The battalion lost two soldiers on a 2004 deployment to Iraq. Staff Sgt. Oscar D. Vargas-Medina, 32, of Chicago, and Spc. Ramon C. Ojeda, 22, of Ramona, Calif., were killed on May 1 that year when their convoy came under attack.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.