First Lt. Benjamin T. Britt, 24, of Wheeler, was killed Dec. 22 by an improvised explosive device that detonated near his position.

“He loved Wheeler, he loved Wheeler County, he loved the Panhandle, and he thought Texas was the greatest state in the United States,” Dave Britt Jr., the soldier’s father, said in Dec. 26 edition of the Amarillo Globe-News.

He played in two state championship games as a tackle for the Wheeler High football team and was a first-team all-stater in 1998. He was valedictorian of his class and an Eagle Scout.

He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

“He was gung-ho Army, and he knew what was going to happen,” Britt said. “He didn’t know he was going to get killed, but he knew he was going to face combat. And he welcomed it because he was representing his country.”

Britt graduated from high school in 1999, then attended Trinity University in San Antonio before transferring to West Point a year later.

He was assigned to B Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky.

Another soldier, Spc. William Lopez-Feliciano, 33, of Quebradillas, Puerto Rico, was also killed in the Baghdad blast.

Proceeds from the 1LT Benjamin T. Britt bracelet will be donated to the 1st Lt. Benjamin Britt Scholarship.