Relatives of Soldiers Killed in Iraq Mourn

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, the director of the defense ministry's operation room, speaks at a press conference where he stated that the bodies of two missing U.S. soldiers had been discovered on a street near the town where they went missing, whilst a U.S. military officer said two bodies had been found but had not yet been identified, in Baghdad, Iraq Tuesday, June 20, 2006. Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon, went missing Friday at a traffic checkpoint near the town of Youssifiyah, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Baghdad. (AP Photo/Jalal Mudhar) (Jalal Mudhar - AP)

"He said he liked it, and it was working out for him," McDonald said.

Josh Tolman, who went to high school with Tucker, said the two of them would fish the Prineville Reservoir for catfish and in the fall would head into the Ochoco Mountains to hunt deer and elk with their families.

"We helped each other work on (our trucks), then go play with them in the woods," Tolman said.

In Iraq, Tucker kept in touch with friends via e-mail and telephone. Although he tried to keep them from worrying, longtime friend Margee Hagedorn said, he did share some troubling stories, such as when the Humvee in front of his was hit by a roadside bomb.

At a nearby gas station and convenience store where Tucker pumped gas as a teenager, car wash manager Ed Bockoven affixed red-white-and-blue balloons to the store's sign.

"He has a lot of friends in town," Bockoven said.

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Associated Press writers Lynn Brezosky in Brownsville, Texas, and Brad Cain in Madras, Ore., contributed to this report.