Tribnet.com -- The latest Stryker brigade soldier to be killed in Iraq was described Tuesday as a 19-year-old western Pennsylvanian who played football and sent e-mails to his family every day.

Pvt. Bradli N. Coleman died Sunday at an Army hospital in Baghdad, the day after his living quarters in Mosul were struck in a mortar attack.

Coleman lived at the Fort Lewis-based brigade's headquarters at the Mosul presidential palace compound and worked in the personnel section at the brigade tactical operations center, his father, Don, told his hometown newspaper, the Kittanning Leader Times.

Mortar and rocket attacks are a regular occurrence at the brigade's bases across northern Iraq. Insurgents typically fire just a few rounds before fleeing to avoid detection.

Coleman was the second Stryker soldier to be killed in a mortar attack. Spc. Isela Rubalcava, 25, of El Paso, Texas, died May 8 after she was hit at another forward operating base in Mosul.

"Brad and I had talked in the weeks before how the shelters were starting to be targeted," Don Coleman told the Leader Times. "There were a few close calls where soldiers had just walked out, and the quarters were destroyed by mortar rounds."

Most Stryker soldiers live in shelters that resemble cargo containers or mobile homes. Their thin metal walls and ceilings provide little protection against a direct hit or flying shrapnel.

Brigade officials and the Pentagon released no other details about Coleman's death.

The Times Leader said the soldier joined the brigade in February, three months after it deployed from Fort Lewis in November. He joined the Army after graduating from high school last spring. He played football and was on the wrestling team.

His father said he stayed in touch.

"Between e-mail and chat, I don't think we missed a day," said Don Coleman, who saved each message. He added that Brad was especially close to his younger brother, Nathan, who wrestled and played football with his big brother.

Coleman told the Times Leader his son wrote about riding on supply convoys back and forth from the Mosul airfield, and said the new soldier had a "nervous excitement" about being in the Army and deployed to Iraq.

"He'd talk about getting stuck in traffic," his father said. "You'd look around and see all these people, and start to feel like you were outnumbered five to 500."

Coleman last visited home in February before leaving for Iraq. He raised German short-hair pointers, and couldn't resist adopting a stray dog at his camp, his father told the newspaper. He asked his father to send worm pills and flea medication.

Vince Curren, principal at Elderton High School, told the Times Leader he last talked to Coleman during the winter.

"He really enjoyed what he was doing," Curren said. "He thoroughly enjoyed being in the service."

Coleman was the school's second graduate to die in Iraq. Army Spc. William R. Sturges Jr., 24, was killed in a checkpoint bombing in January.