It was Shawna Morrison's adventurous spirit that propelled her to seek the new, the different, the stimulating, in life.

"She liked to try things, go new places, try new food," said her brother, Allan Morrison. "She liked to test stuff out."

While still in high school, the Paris girl signed up for the Illinois Army National Guard. Last November, while away in college in Champaign, Ill., she was called to active duty.

Sgt. Morrison, 26, was killed Sunday in a mortar attack on a U.S. Army compound on the outskirts of Baghdad. Her father, Rick Morrison, said he had been told she suffered shrapnel wounds to the head, he told the Associated Press.

The attack also killed Spc. Charles Lamb of Martinsville, Ill., and severely wounded three other soldiers. The badly wounded includes Aaron Wernz, 26, of Marshall, family members told the Associated Press late Tuesday.

The soldiers are members of the U.S. Army's 1544th Transportation Co. based in Paris.

Morrison had been studying psychology at the U of I while working jobs in two restaurants to support herself.

The Morrisons moved to the Paris area from Detroit when Shawna was 10, her father said.

Shawna belonged to the track team and the flag corps at Paris High School. She had hoped to attend Allan's graduation this spring, Allan said.

"She will be dearly missed. It hit a lot of people hard, not just the family," Rick Morrison said.

The family often took fishing trips that Shawna looked forward to, Rick Morrison said, and his daughter never minded threading a worm onto a hook.

"She always had a smile. She had a super personality and was great to be around. She would laugh at anything," he said.

A junior in college when she arrived in Iraq, Shawna planned at some point in her life to have children, her father said. Shawna often reported to her family with awe the things teenagers and young adults in her unit did.

"She felt like a mother to those kids in her unit," Rick said of Shawna, who was in the Guard eight years. "She was impressed by it all."

While Shawna never complained about her military duties, she sometimes got frustrated working to help a nation while many of its people tried to push her and other soldiers out. Rick Morrison said the recent murder of an Iraqi family working with Shawna and other Guard members left her somewhat disenchanted.

The last time they spoke was by telephone on Saturday, when she asked him for a new vacuum for a rug she couldn't get clean.

Besides the two dead and three gravely wounded, 12 other Illinois guardsmen from the 1544th suffered minor injuries in the attack, said Chief Warrant Officer Bud Roberts of the Illinois Army National Guard in Springfield, Ill.

The attack happened about 6 p.m. Baghdad time against Seitz, a logistical base on the western outskirts of Baghdad, Roberts said.

Lamb, 23, is survived by his parents and his wife, Erin, said his father, Tom Lamb of Martinsville.

Tom Lamb said his son was home on leave in early July, but had no regrets about going back to Iraq.

"He told me he was proud of what he was doing," Lamb said.

Wernz was in critical condition in an Army hospital in Germany, suffering from shrapnel wounds to his face, chest and abdomen, his family said.

"He's stable," said Albert Wernz of Marshall, the soldier's father. "They think he will heal. They seem optimistic about his recovery."

No information was available regarding the other injured soldiers.

Rick Morrison said he was a supporter of the Iraq war when it was first proposed in 2002. Since then, he has begun to feel that America was "badly misled" and fears that generations of soldiers may have to work to finish what was started.

A stream of people, reporters and neighbors alike, have visited the family since his daughter died, Rick Morrison said. A fellow soldier's mother arrived wearing a button with Shawna's picture and shared a tearful hug with Rick om Tuesday evening.

The 1544th is attached to the Army's 13th Corps Support Command, which oversees distribution of military fuel, food, water and other supplies to U.S. forces across Iraq. Shawna Morrison was working mostly in ensuring that communication was maintained between units.

The 1544th has had two other soldiers killed this year. In March, Sgt. Ivory L. Phipps, 43, of Chicago died after a mortar round detonated inside a logistics base in Baghdad. In May, a roadside bomb killed Spc. Jeremy L. Ridlen of Maroa, Ill.

The 1544th, composed of about 170 members, has more than 150 members deployed overseas as of August, Roberts said. The Illinois Army National Guard has more than 2,400 Illinois guardsmen deployed in active duty, Roberts said.

Rick Morrison said his daughter will have a full military burial in a civilian cemetery, but has not been able to make funeral arrangements yet.