"He said 'ma'am it's sensitive information can we go inside?' I said 'my husband's dead isn't he,' " E.J. recalled.

It was a moment she and her husband Jerry Palinsky had talked about. E.J. is an Army veteran too. It was an ending they both knew might come.

"Bottom line my husband knew going into this that he could risk his life. But he was willing to do that for this country."

Jerry Palinsky left the Army Reserves and signed on with a civilian contracting firm, Cochise Consultancy, Inc, providing security for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Palinsky was a highly trained bodyguard, and an imposing one at that. At 6'4" and 350 pounds he wore a size 16 shoe. His family says he could bench press more than 600 pounds.

But this mountain of a man lost his life to an Iraqi roadside bomb hidden in a garbage can. It exploded as Palinsky led a convoy. He was killed instantly. He'd survived, and thrived his wife says, 30 dangerous months in Iraq.

"He wouldn't have given it up for anything in the world," said E.J. "He loved it. That was his element because he was helping the United States of America stay free and trying to help the Iraqis get what we have here."

"If I could I would take his place," said his 15-year-old son Jerry III. "That's how much I love that fool. He's my Dad yeah, you're supposed to love your parents, but if I could I would do anything to bring him back."

"He could always put a smile on your face," said his 14-year-old daughter Adina. "First impression was like whooa!! He was huge! But he was always smiling. He was great. He could always pick out your personality and make you laugh."

That roadside bomb ended 23 years of laughter on the worst of all possible days. It was his and E.J.'s 23rd wedding anniversary.

Even so, E.J. Palinsky's grief is countered by her flooding pride in a husband and father so willing to serve his country and provide for his family.

"God protected my husband for as long as he thought he needed to protect my husband. He took my husband to contract now with God."

Funeral services are expected to be held next week on base at Ft. Lewis.

As of this week 129 private contractors from the United States have been killed in Iraq since the war began. Most of them, like Jerry Palinsky, were working for bodyguard and security services.