Army Pvt. Rey D. Cuervo

LAGUNA VISTA, Texas — Pvt. Rey D. Cuervo always knew he wanted to be a soldier and he warned his family of the risks he faced as he went off to war in Iraq, his mother remembered.

Cuervo, 24, of Laguna Vista, was killed Sunday in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device hit his mounted patrol. He was assigned to 1st Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based in Fort Polk, La.

“He was five years old and he said, ‘You know I’m going to be a soldier,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll believe you when you leave, when I see you in a uniform. Well, he did it,”’ Rosalba Kuhn said, recalling a conversation with her only son.

When he left for Iraq he said, “Mom, you know where I’m going, probably I’m not coming back.”

She last heard from Cuervo on Christmas Day, or Friday in Iraq.

“I asked him how was his Christmas. He said, ‘Here they don’t celebrate Christmas, but I was guarding a church.”’

After Kuhn told him she would be working as usual at the brewing company, Cuervo told her how much he missed being home.

“He said, ‘Yeah, mom, You know I can close my eyes and see the Oyster Bar and Whataburger. I can smell the Whataburger.”

He had just bought a camera to send pictures and had sent money home for his parents to buy a computer so that he could e-mail more frequently.

“He and I talked almost every day on line,” Cuervo’s stepfather, Thomas Kuhn, said. “But I missed him that last day.”

A military official came to the house with the news Sunday morning.

“You open the door at 9 o’clock and there’s an officer standing there, you know exactly what happened,” Thomas Kuhn said.

He said Cuervo would have wanted them to be strong.

“He said that was his job, that was what he was going to do.”

Cuervo joined the Army in September 1999 and arrived at Fort Polk in June 2003.

Five other soldiers from the squadron, whose names were not released, were injured in the attack and taken to military medical facilities.