Vitagliano was killed Jan. 15, 2005, by a car bomb in Ramadi. He had gone to military school in Virginia and served in the Marines before joining the Army in 1990. His unit had been stationed in South Korea before being transferred to Iraq in the fall of 2004. His mother remembered him as someone who always looked out for the underdog, with a contagious smile. He told his recruiter that his best training came from his father, a former Marine.