Clay -- Monday night Burke Nicholas received the news any parent dreads hearing. Military leaders told him his son, Sergeant First Class Jamie Nicholas was one of four soldiers killed Monday morning by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

"I knew last night when they walked up on our porch, it was the end," says Burke Nicholas.

He says his son wanted to join the military ever since high school, adding the family is taking comfort in the fact that Jamie died doing what he loved to do.

"It helps, it helps a great deal, but it's still hard, really hard. I'm so proud of him," says Nicholas.

Sergeant Nicholas was a member of the Army Special Forces based at Fort Bragg. He was Clay County's first casualty of war from either the Iraq or Afghanistan conflicts, and in this small community, the remembering process has already begun.

"We support our troops, sometimes we don't know if the war is a good thing or a bad thing, but we support them," says Kathy Taylor, a family friend.

Burke says Jamie talked about the difference the military is making in Afghanistan when the two last talked. All four of his sons served in the military with a couple heading into harm's way within the next couple of months.

Burke says his son requested to be buried in a family cemetery in Clay County. Funeral arrangements are still incomplete.