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CORTEZ, Colo. � Pfc. George Geer joined a family tradition stretching to the Revolutionary War when he joined the Army at the age of 25, just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, his father said.

Geer, 27, was killed by a bomb in Iraq on Monday while inspecting a suspicious vehicle, said his father, Harold Geer.

The last time the soldier talked to his family Saturday, he wanted to hear about the snow in the mountains of southwestern Colorado, his family said. He loved to ski, travel, ride horses, hunt elk, and race cars and motorcycles.

He had been scheduled to come home for a leave in February.

Geer was survived by his father his older sister, Hope and his mother, Lois. A brother, Chad, died in a car accident in 1989 at age 19.

�I kept thinking George will be all right because I couldn�t go...