Navy Seaman Charles O. Sare, 23, Hemet; killed by roadside bomb

He loved anything to do with off-roading, got a kick out of Adam Sandler movies and disdained “tree-huggers.”

Navy Seaman Charles Otto “Otter” Sare also had a tender side, say family and friends of the 23-year-old Hemet native killed Oct. 23 in Iraq.

When Sare deployed to “the sandbox” Sept. 1, he took with him a teddy bear given to him by his girlfriend of seven months. He told her that he would keep it by his heart, she recounted on Sare’s home page on MySpace.com.

A medic, Sare was killed when a roadside bomb blew up near his Humvee in Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad, according to the Department of Defense.

He is the fourth graduate of Hemet High School to be killed in Iraq.

His father, Charles “Ed” Sare of Hemet, said Otto entered the service because he wanted to become a paramedic firefighter.

“He was there to do a job and get the experience,” his father said. “But he believed in the mission. That’s why he wanted to go.”

Sare enlisted in 2004 and was stationed at the Naval Ambulatory Care Center in Port Hueneme. His family said that shortly after arriving in Iraq, he helped save the life of a fellow serviceman, an event he spoke of with great pride.

Called “Otter” by everyone, Sare was a happy-go-lucky guy who tried to coax a smile from others, his father said.

He was close to his younger brother, Matt, and spoke of moving to Las Vegas with him once he left the service, according to his MySpace page.

His mother, Vikki Carver, a resident of Nibley, Utah, called her son “my closest friend, even though I had to be a parent too. He never judges, only tries to compliment you.”

Sare was buried Nov. 1 in Hemet in a service attended by 600 people. His tricked-out Toyota pickup truck led the procession of mourners to San Jacinto Valley Cemetery.

“There are no words to describe the hurt,” his father said.

catherine.saillant@latimes.com