Army Spc. Michael R. Woodliff

Died March 2, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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22, of Port Charlotte, Fla.; assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Friedberg, Germany; killed March 2 when an improvised explosive device struck his convoy in Baghdad.

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Spc. Michael R. Woodliff was determined to join the military, despite his mother’s objections.

“You’re going into the service over my dead body,” Janine Woodliff recalled telling her son. But Michael Woodliff refused to give in, tricking his parents into signing a waiver the summer after his junior year in high school, his mother said.

“Mike — he was gung-ho. I couldn’t believe his bravery,” Steven Woodliff said of his brother. “He was a class act, many times over.”

The 22-year-old mortar specialist from Port Charlotte, Fla., was killed March 2 by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. He was based in Friedberg, Germany.

The soldier had reported back to his family that he had narrowly avoided death several times in Iraq. In one instance a suicide bomber’s detonator malfunctioned as the bomber ran toward him. “He said it was the longest second he ever had,” said his brother Andrew. “He and his guys never talked about it again.”

Michael Woodliff had plans to marry in February 2005. “We wanted to get married so bad and loved each other so much,” said Crystal Steward. “I don’t know how anyone is going to measure up to him.”

Survivors include his father, Lee Woodliff.

— Associated Press