ROY — Pvt. Dan Dolan had been looking forward to coming home for rest and recreation and was told he could make the trip back from Iraq in October.
"But he really wanted to come home in January because he wanted to snowboard," his mother said.
Now, Fay Dolan stood beside the front yard of that home, where many newly erected flags fluttered, and displayed photos of her 19-year-old son, her face showing her sorrow.
On Sept. 29 he would have turned 20, she said. But he was killed in an ambush on Sunday, becoming the second Utahn killed in Iraq in as many weeks. Marine Cpl. Adam Galvez of Salt Lake City was killed Aug. 20.
According to an official notification that the Department of Defense posted online, Pvt. Daniel G. Dolan, Roy, and Spec. Kenneth M. Cross, 21, of Superior, Wis., died Sunday during combat operations in Baghdad "when their M1126 Stryker Vehicle came in contact with enemy forces using an improvised explosive device and small arms fire."
"Both soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division." This unit, the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, is permanently stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash.
Dan Dolan was a Stryker driver, his family said.
The last time Fay Dolan talked to him was Aug. 21, when he telephoned. "He was always telling us what's going on and he missed us and he loved us," she said.
"He was proud to serve."
Early Monday, Army officials went to Hill Air Force Base, where the young man's father, Tim Dolan, works, and informed him of the death. A delegation from the military arrived Tuesday morning at the family's home, talking with Tim and Fay Dolan and their other child, Michelle, 16.
"We're just devastated," Tim Dolan said shortly afterward.
"He was proud. He was proud to serve his country."
Outside their home later that day, Fay Dolan leafed through a scrapbook, showing photos of her son — school portraits, a picture in the mortarboard he wore when he graduated from Roy High School last year, a view of the young man in his Army uniform.
"He was proud to serve," his mother agreed. "He didn't talk much about Iraq, not really."
He joined the Army last September and was undecided about whether he wanted to make the military his career.
"He was a really, really, really good kid," Fay Dolan said. "He was, of course, brave or he wouldn't have done it. And he was an honest kid and he was loyal to his friends."
In fact, one of those friends, two years younger than the soldier, had hammered the flags into the lawn as a tribute, she said.
When Dan Dolan was growing up he played a lot of hockey. "He played a little football in junior high," she added. He went at all activities full-bore, according to Fay Dolan.
She said military officials told her Dan was killed in an ambush.
At first, family members thought the Stryker had turned over, because they could not understand why he would be outside the heavily armored vehicle. But now she speculates he got out to help fellow soldiers. "He could see that it was a big firefight, and he had to get out to help," she said.
Jim Andrus, Fruit Heights, Dan Dolan's uncle, hugged his sister Fay. "He was the best nephew anyone could have ever had," he told the Deseret Morning News.
"He was a very loving kid who was very rambunctious about everything he did." He was dedicated to his country and to his parents. He "always stayed out of trouble" and earned good grades.
"Just a really good kid," Andrus said.
Stationed overseas, Dan Dolan would talk to his relatives on the telephone all the time, he said. "He loved his job" driving Strykers, he said. "It was supposed to be the safest vehicle. ... It had impenetrable skin, it could stop a rocket-propelled grenade.
"It's unbelievable."
Kenny Hokanson, a marketing teacher at Roy High School, remembered Dan Dolan as a good student in his classes and a "good kid." Then he corrected himself, saying a good young man.
"He was a hockey player," he said in a telephone interview. "He was a typical teenager. He liked girls and cars and stuff like that."
In Dolan's senior year, Hokanson became aware of his interest in the military. "He thought it was a good deal to serve," he said.
The teacher told him that if he enlisted, he might be sent into active duty.
Dan Dolan said that was all right.
After basic training, he visited Hokanson. "He was ready to use the skills that he'd gained in basic," he recalled.
Candace Sallade, 19, who lives across the street from the Dolans and had known Dan since sixth grade, remembers that he was a good person with a soft heart.
Being a strong guy, he would give the impression that he was a tough, macho type, she said. "But, man, when his little sister would get picked on by any guys, that kid would drop anything he was doing and go get 'em, and be like, 'You go apologize to my sister right now."'
He would do the same for "any of us girls," she added.
She remembered that Dan Dolan loved to have fun and laugh, and have lots of friends around him. He was always willing to help others and teach people new things, she said. "He liked to be the one everybody depended on for something."
She was somewhat surprised when he joined the Army, Sallade said.
"But he always wanted to fight for his country, you know, and always wanted to be a hero," Sallade said, "and that's exactly what he is."
E-mail: bau@desnews.com