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Joseph C. Nurre was once eating lunch with the other first-string football stars when he saw a freshman sitting alone at another cafeteria table, terrified at his first day of school.

Nurre brought the kid over to join him and the team.

�He was just an awesome kid,� said Mike Clemons, his football coach. �He was a soldier. A soldier on the football field. A soldier in the war. He�s my hero now.�

Nurre, 22, of Wilton, Calif., was killed Aug. 21 near Samarra by a roadside bomb. He graduated high school in 2001 and was based at Weirton. Despite his 5-foot-9-inch frame and 170 pounds, he became a

defensive lineman on the football team. He was so well liked he became team captain. �If you told him to be in the weight room at 6, he would be there at 5,� Clemons said.

�He took definite aim on what he was going to do.�

After high school,...