Army Spc. Paul E. Andersen

On paper, Paul E. Andersen was a devoted military man who spent about 25 years with the Army Reserve. At heart, he was a kid.

The 49-year-old from Dowagiac, Mich., enjoyed slurping strawberry milkshakes, tinkering with machines and putting up lots of lights at Christmas. To deliver his riding lawn mower to his stepdaughter's home, he once drove it along the road and fooled police by pretending to mow the roadside.

"He was pleased and proud as can be, especially because he got away with it," said his wife, Linda.

She first bumped into Andersen at a friend's home in 2004, after his first tour in Iraq.

"I backed up and stepped on his foot, and I just asked him what the hell he was doing and please get out of the way," she said. "He just stood there." They married four months later.

In August, he got leave to return to South Bend, Ind., where he was based, for their fifth anniversary. He died weeks later in Baghdad, on Oct. 1, when a camp was attacked with indirect fire.

"I hope he can rest now," his wife said. "He's served our country very well."

Andersen also is survived by six children and stepchildren.

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Army Maj. David L. Audo

Long before David L. Audo became a father of two youngsters who had spent his share of assignments overseas, he was a seemingly model student at St. Joseph-Ogden High School in his hometown of St. Joseph, Illinois.

He took advanced classes like honors biology and was quite a motivated student, coach and teacher Jim Acklin said.

"His sense of humor sticks out, and he was ornery in a good way," Acklin said, adding that Audo also ran dashes and relays as a sprinter on the track team and was in the drama club.

He was commissioned as an officer in 1997, first assigned with the military police in Germany and later deployed twice to Kosovo, then to Iraq and to Afghanistan in 2005. Meanwhile, he earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Illinois and a master's in business from Webster University in 2002. He also was a Bronze Star recipient.

The 35-year-old was again deployed this year to Iraq, where he died Oct. 27 in Baghdad of injuries from a noncombat incident under investigation. He was assigned to Fort Lewis, Wash.

His survivors included his wife, Rebecca, and their children, Austin and Ashley.

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Army Spc. Adrian L. Avila

Adrian Avila found ways to keep busy in the desert of Kuwait, but was perhaps best known for hunting scorpions.

"My husband Chris and Avila had just been hunting scorpions the night before this terrible tragedy," April Holderfield, who along with her husband served with Avila, wrote in an online message board.

James Owens, who wrote on the message board that he was Avila's roommate, said "it's not been the same without him coming in here every day all excited about some car he had seen online, or some scorpion he found out in the desert, or telling me about some gun he had seen."

"He was a great kid who was always happy and he will be missed very much."

Avila, 19, of Opelika, Ala., died Oct. 29 at Khabari Crossing, Kuwait, after a noncombat incident. The Alabama Army National Guardsman was assigned to Fort Payne.

His mother, Donna Lawson, said her son joined to serve his country and make something of himself.

"He always cared more for others than he did for himself," she said. "He had a hard life, but he wasn't going to let anyone bring him down."

Avila is also survived by his father, Ruben Avila.

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Army Staff Sgt. Bradley Espinoza

Bradley Espinoza stood out in part because of his grin. It's what sticks with his mother, Magdalena, who recalls him as a man always making others laugh.

And it struck Chris Widell, who once led Espinoza's platoon and remembered him in an online message board posting as a smart, eager soldier.

"He had a bright smile that he could barely conceal, he worked hard, he trained hard and you could tell he wanted to be a leader," Widell wrote. After a fellow soldier died, Espinoza buckled down in his work, he said.

"He was more lean, more serious and he had a presence about him that gave his soldiers confidence," Widell wrote.

The 26-year-old from Mission, Texas, was killed by an explosive Oct. 19 in Qwest.

His uncle, Ralph Solis, said the Army told the family Espinoza died trying to disarm a bomb. Espinoza was assigned to Fort Hood.

He had joined the Army as a combat engineer in July 2002, shortly after graduating from Mission High School.

"He died doing what he wanted to do," his stepfather, Miguel de Leon, told the media in Spanish.

Espinoza's survivors include his wife, Maria; children, Joseph and Celeste; and four brothers and sisters.

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Army Spc. Joseph L. Gallegos

When he was a boy, Joseph Gallegos once found a hawk with a broken wing, nursed it back to health, and let it go.

When he was working for the U.S. Forest Service in 2007, Gallegos came across a burning truck, saw a man inside and pulled him to safety. Gallegos _ the lifesaver _ took jobs as a firefighter, an ambulance driver and a policeman.

He served four years in the active Army. Later, he joined the New Mexico National Guard.

"He was always taking different jobs, but they always put him in the service of others," said the guardsman's brother Donald Gallegos. "He was always very proud of the fact that he was serving."

While serving in Tallil, Iraq, Gallegos died Oct. 28 of a heart attack. He was a vehicle mechanic with the 720th Transportation Company out of Las Vegas, N.M. He was 39 years old.

The youngest in a family of four girls and two boys, Gallegos was raised in Questa, N.M., by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Adonario Gallegos. Continued...