An airman from Kansas who was killed in Iraq while riding in a convoy was proud of his service in the Air Force and wanted to make it his career, his mother said Tuesday.

Staff Sgt. Dustin W. Peters was scheduled to come home Aug. 3, 18 days before his 26th birthday.

“I asked him if he was scared, and he said ‘I just try to help the people who are scared,'” his mother, Linda Benning, said in a telephone interview from her home in Shirley, Ark., about 60 miles north of Little Rock, Ark.

Peters, 25, of El Dorado, died Sunday morning when the convoy was hit by a homemade bomb, officials at the Little Rock Air Force Base said in a statement.

Benning said she spoke with her son on July 4 and talked about his upcoming return. Her last contact with her son was an e-mail from Iraq dated July 8.

Peters had been with the base for almost four years and left for the Middle East in February for a 179-day tour. It was his fourth deployment since arriving at the base Nov. 28, 2000, and second tour in Iraq.

“We lost a valuable member of the Little Rock Air Force Base team and our Air Force family,” said Col. Joseph Reheiser, commander of the 314th Airlift Wing. “Sergeant Peters will be missed, but his dedication and sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

Peters was assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing and was attached to the U.S. Army’s 494th Truck Company at Balad Air Base in Iraq. He was the first Air Force death in Iraq since March.

Benning said her son loved his job in the Air Force. His commanding officer had told her that Peters was a “very serious-minded person.”

“He knew the dangers of his job. He did everything that he was supposed to. He was a credit to the military and himself,” Benning said.

Peters is survived by his mother, a sister and a 4-year-old son by his former wife in Wichita.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius issued a statement Tuesday expressing sympathy to Peters’ family.

“As a mother, my heart breaks that another young Kansas soldier has lost his life,” Sebelius said. “I urge all Kansans to keep the 5,000 soldiers still in harm’s way in our thoughts and prayers.”

Peters joined the Air Force on Jan. 29, 1997, his mother said. He was a vehicle operator journeyman.

A private memorial service will be conducted Thursday at the base.