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Andrew Kemple wanted to join the Army after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But his mom was scared for him, and he agreed to think it over for awhile.

When he enlisted in 2003, he had her support, said his mother, Deirdre Ostlund.

Kemple, 23, of Cambridge, Minn., was killed Sunday in Tikrit, Iraq. He died when his Humvee was attacked as he searched for a possible weapons cache, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.

Kemple was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Ky., and had been in Iraq about 4½ months.

He became the 35th person with strong Minnesota ties to die in connection with the war.

Whenever Kemple and his mom would talk about the war, he'd reassure her that whatever happened "was a soldier's job, Ma," Ostlund said Wednesday night.

Kemple made some bad choices when he was a teenager, Ostlund said, but he matured into a respectable adult who always looked out for the underdog.

"He was moved by human suffering and had a motivation to help other people," she said.

For more than a year after 9/11, they talked about the dangers of joining the military during wartime.

"[Enlisting] was a serious decision; we thought about it for a long time," Ostlund said. "We supported him 100 percent because he felt so strongly about it."

Kemple was a corporal in the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team in the 101st Airborne, the Army said.

There have been 123 soldiers from Fort Campbell killed in Iraq, including eight so far this month.

Kemple was born in north Minneapolis and moved with his family to Cambridge when he was 9. He was a 2001 graduate of Cambridge-Isanti High School. Cambridge is about 45 miles north of St. Paul.

Ostlund said her son easily attracted friends, neighbors, children and anyone else around him because of his outgoing personality. And he always talked to people because he was interested in what they had to say, she said.

Ostlund moved to Brazil a year ago, where she retired with her husband, Kemple's stepfather, Richard Ostlund. She sent her son Brazilian chocolate, his favorite, and checked on him through e-mail and video messages via webcam.

"It was nice to see him smile and laugh," Ostlund said.

She returned to Minnesota Jan. 12 to visit family members and friends. He was scheduled to come for a visit in either June or July.

Kemple was especially close to his sister, Andrea Kemple, 25, of St. Louis Park, his mother said.