Topeka ? As a high school wrestler, Derrick Joseph Lutters once faced a mentally retarded opponent.

He could have pinned the boy easily and won. Instead, he let his opponent win.

That incident was recalled Tuesday by Lutters’ father, Chuck, who was mourning the death of his son, a Kansas Army National Guard specialist who died Sunday in Iraq.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said the 24-year-old’s death reminded Kansans of the sacrifices made by soldiers and their families. It also brought home a political irony, coming the same day legislators cut in half a benefit for the families of Guard members who die in combat and limiting it two soldiers killed earlier this year.

But for Chuck Lutters, of Goodland, the story is about a young man who wanted to be a peacemaker and saw his deployment to Iraq as a way to fulfill that role.

“That’s just the way he was. That’s one of the reasons that he went to Iraq. He volunteered to go,” Chuck Lutters said from his western Kansas home.

Derrick Lutters was killed when the vehicle in which he was riding was attacked by a suicide bomber south of Baghdad. He moved to Burlington, Colo., after graduating from Goodland High School in 1999.

Lutters was the third Kansas National Guard member to die in Iraq. He was a member of Detachment 1 of the guard’s 170th Maintenance Company, but he was assigned to the 891st Engineer Battalion. The 891st is based in Iola and commanded by Lt. Col. Lee Tafanelli, a Kansas House member from Ozawkie who gave up his seat to go to Iraq.

The other guard members were Staff Sgt. Clinton Wisdom, 39, of Atchison, and Sgt. Don Clary, 21, of Troy. The first guard casualties since the Vietnam War, they were killed Nov. 8 in Iraq when they positioned their vehicle between a high-ranking delegation and a suicide car bomber. They were members of Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 130th Field Artillery Regiment, based at Hiawatha.

Derrick Lutters’ death came the same day legislators approved a budget bill containing $125,000 each for Wisdom’s and Clary’s families. However, some senators were upset because they originally supported a proposal to provide $250,000 to the families of all Guard members killed in combat.

More than 600 soldiers are deployed with the 891st for a one-year mission in Iraq.

“The death of any soldier is a sad loss, but especially when he’s one of your own,” said Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, adjutant general of the Kansas National Guard.

Derrick Lutters joined the Kansas guard in 1998, following his brother and sister into armed forces.

Chuck Lutters said he talked with his son Saturday and could tell the war was taking its toll.

“The last few times, you could just hear the uncertainty in his voice. This is not as good as he thought as it would be,” he said.

Still, the memory of the wrestling match sticks in the father’s mind.

“He let the boy take him down, and when he did he patted him on the back to say ‘good job,”‘ Chuck Lutters said. “He got a standing ovation from the crowd and the coaches shook his hand.”