Soldier had tie to Bay State

A talented soccer player who earned an academic scholarship to study astrophysics at Vassar College, Robb L. Rolfing took seriously the Army's adage to be the best he could be.

After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, the tank-like forward, who spent a year coaching soccer at Curry College in Milton, decided to act on a decades-old ambition: He joined the military.

Early Friday morning, a year after joining the elite Green Berets, Staff Sergeant Rolfing was ambushed while trying to clear insurgents from a house in the south of Baghdad, relatives said. The 29-year-old, who was on his second tour in Iraq, was hit by small-arms fire and died shortly afterward.

As of yesterday morning, he was one of 3,577 members of the US military to die in Iraq.

"He was very patriotic," said Rex Rolfing, his father. "He believed in what he was doing. We are all very proud of him."

Born in Sioux Falls, S.D., Rolfing wanted to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, who served in World War II, said T.J. Rolfing, his brother, in a telephone interview from the family's home in South Dakota.

"He always wanted to be in the Special Forces," his brother said. "We tried to push him away from going into the service. Then 9/11 hit, and he said, 'I'm in.' "

Rolfing graduated in 1996 from the O'Gorman High School in Sioux Falls, where he was a kicker and punter on the football team and played hockey and soccer. His brother said he graduated in the top 5 percent of his high school class.

He went to Vassar in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and played soccer and lacrosse, his brother said.

After he graduated in 2000, he moved to Orlando, Fla. to coach soccer. Then he moved on to Curry College, where he worked as an assistant soccer coach for the men's team and as groundskeeper from August 2001 to October 2002, according to the college.

"Curry College is saddened to learn of the loss of Staff Sergeant Robb Rolfing," said Fran Gately, a college spokeswoman, in a statement. "The thoughts, prayers, and deepest sympathies of our entire community go out to his family, friends, and loved ones."

T.J. Rolfing said his brother joined the Army in January 2003 and started serving his first nine-month tour in Iraq that July.

In March, he returned to Iraq, assigned to the Second Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), from Fort Carson, Colo.