US Troops Killed In Iraq And Kuwait

The Associated Press

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.