To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. – Families are mourning the loss of four eastern North Carolina National Guardsmen. Military officials said the men were killed in Iraq this week when a roadside bomb hit their vehicles.

Officials identified the men as 39-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Edward C. Kramer of Wilmington, 36-year-old Sgt. Roger L. Adams Jr. of Jacksonville, 30-year-old Sgt. Juan C. Baldeosingh of Newport and 39-year-old Spc. Robert L. Bittiker of Jacksonville.

"I heard the doorbell ring, and when you look out and see those two people in army green, you know what they're there for. You hope that it’s just an injury," Mary Wheat said. Her son, Bittiker was one of the men killed.

In the Guard since graduating high school, Bittiker was deployed to Iraq a few years ago and also to Bosnia. His mother said he died doing what he loved.

"When its doing what they're there for, something they believed in, it's a little bit easier for us to accept that," Wheat said.

The unit had left for Iraq in April and was due back in early 2010. With these deaths, now 15 N.C. National Guard Soldiers have been killed in action since 2001.

In the Marines for 13 years, Adams was also a firefighter.

“We always knew it was something that can happen, but you never think it's you," Adams’ wife, Teresa Adams, said.

Adams' family said he was driven by wanting to help others.

"Everything he did was about everybody but himself, I mean genuinely. Even the cars he drove. He always drove the clunkers and gave me the good stuff," Teresa Adams said.

Those who knew the men said that sense of duty and strength was something they all shared. And it's now something four families try to channel, as they struggle to cope.

None of the funeral arrangements have been finalized.

A memorial service is planned Baldeosingh Monday at 2:30 p.m. It will be held at Carteret General Hospital where he worked as a security guard.