The 23-year-old Schofield Barracks private killed Tuesday in a firefight while on patrol in Baghdad was planning to marry the mother of his infant son when he returned from Iraq next spring.

Pfc. Christopher A. McCraw, 23, of Columbia, Miss., was wounded when his patrol encountered small-arms fire in Nasar Wa Salam, the Pentagon reported yesterday.

“;The whole family is pretty much in shock,”; the soldier's uncle Jerry McCraw told the Associated Press. “;It's about the worst thing you can have is a military chaplain and (a sergeant) show up at your house.”;

“;He was a good kid. He was there doing his duty for us,”; McCraw said. “;He was always a happy kid, a bursting-with-energy-type kid, I guess what you would call a perfect soldier.”;

A message Christopher McCraw wrote on his MySpace.com page said, “;For man hath no greater love than he that would lay down his own life for his friends.”;

On his Facebook.com page, McCraw is pictured with his girlfriend, Brianna, and his infant son, Isaac, in May.

McCraw's brother also served in Iraq and came home two years ago with post-traumatic stress disorder, their uncle said. McCraw was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. He is also survived by his parents, Avon and Cathy McCraw.

He was the 11th member of the 25th Infantry Division's Stryker brigade to die in Iraq since the unit was sent there in November on a 15-month combat tour.

The 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team and 4,000 soldiers are just north of Baghdad. McCraw was stationed at Camp Liberty outside of Baghdad.

McCraw joined the Army in February 2007 and was assigned to Schofield Barracks in July 2007.

This is the 2nd Brigade's second Iraqi tour. Thirteen 25th Division soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team were killed during its first Iraqi deployment in 2004-2005.

Since the U.S. invaded Iraq five years ago, 89 soldiers, four sailors, 83 Marines, two Air Force personnel and one civilian with Hawaii ties have been killed there.