Army Pvt. Jang Ho Kim, 20, Placentia; killed by roadside bomb

When Army Pvt. Jang Ho Kim told his parents earlier this year that he would be going to Iraq, they had one hope: that he would not be deployed to Baghdad, where so many U.S. soldiers have been attacked and killed.

Eager to reassure his anxious parents, Kim would call home over the summer and tell them that they didn’t need to worry -- he was not in Baghdad.

But he was.

Kim, 20, whose family lives in Placentia, was one of two soldiers killed Nov. 13 when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in Baghdad.

His younger sister, remembering the brother who would tease her as a child, marveled at his transformation, underscored by the story he told to spare his family grief.

“My dad would ask him if he was in Baghdad and he would always say he wasn’t,” said Michelle Kim, 19, a student at UCLA. “When I found out he was in Baghdad, that just really showed the maturity that my brother had. Growing up with him, it took him a while to mature. I used to have so many fights with him -- it was his hobby to bother me and annoy me. But finding out that he was in Baghdad showed his maturity, and that’s something I’m so proud of him for.”

Jang Kim enlisted in the Army last year, leaving Fullerton College. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division in Schweinfurt, Germany.

He wanted the discipline that the Army teaches, according to family members and his clergyman. His father, Seop Kim, had hoped that he would use his military service to strengthen his computer skills, but the young soldier wanted to see combat. His plan was to eventually join the elite Army Special Forces.

“He wanted harder training,” his father said in an interview. “He joked to me: ‘Let me capture Osama bin Laden.’ ”

Growing up, Kim had shown an aptitude for working with computers, his sister said, recalling how he enjoyed teaching himself how they work.

“He was the kind of guy who would go to sleep with hammers and screwdrivers in his hands,” she said. “One of his hobbies was taking computers apart and putting them back together, figuring things out on his own. He had a talent.”

Active in Grace Korean Church in Fullerton, Kim helped the church in setting up Web pages. He graduated from Valencia High School in Placentia, but struggled a bit academically and surprised his family when he said he wanted to enlist.

“One of the many reasons he joined the military was to start his life all over again in the sense that he wanted to get educated and be trained, and show his parents that he cared about his life and wanted to improve upon his life and be the person God wanted him to be,” said Steve Rim, pastor at Grace Korean. “He wanted to go into the military to be a better man.”

Kim’s family came to the U.S. from South Korea in 1990. His father worked for Samsung and took a job with the company in the New York-New Jersey area, but the family eventually settled in Orange County.

The family heard about Kim’s death from two military officers who showed up at their home. Seop Kim was at work at the time. His wife, who greeted the officers, knew something was terribly wrong and asked them to wait until her husband came home to say what it was. Seop Kim rushed back, and the couple learned of their son’s death together.

After the tragedy became public, church members and neighbors paid visits to the home.

Michelle Kim tells of a stranger who also lost a son in Iraq, and who visited the family unannounced to offer comfort.

“She lost her son in the Army a couple of months back, and she knew what it felt like,” she said. “She visited our house and was comforting my mom. It really struck me that people we don’t even know would go out of their way so much in order to show their love and encourage us.”

Asked how the family is coping with the loss, Seop Kim said it has been sustained through religious faith.

“Without faith, it would be very difficult,” he said. “But with faith in God, we can stand it. We can be strong.... My son is in heaven right now.”

In addition to his father and sister, Kim is survived by his mother, Sang Soon Kim; and four grandparents who live in South Korea.

peter.nicholas@latimes.com

*

War casualties

Total U.S. deaths*:

* In and around Iraq**: 2,869

* In and around Afghanistan***: 290

* Other locations***: 56

Source: Department of Defense * Includes military and Department of Defense-employed civilian personnel killed in action and in nonhostile circumstances

**As of Friday

***As of Nov. 18