The last thing the mother said to her son was to be careful.

"You be safe," Lisa Barnes told Kimble Han.

"But he didn't always listen to me," she said in her Saratoga Springs home on Monday, the day after she watched six soldiers carry her son's remains off an Air Force transport jet at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to a waiting van.

Han, 30, an Army private first class, and Spec. Eric N. Lembke, 25, of Tampa, Fla., died Friday in Afghanistan when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device. Han is the 52nd man or woman with Utah ties to die during preparations for and in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

"He's a hero," Barnes said. "I just wish he could have found another way to make me proud."

Han and Lembke served with the 569th Mobility Augmentation Co., 4th Engineer Battalion out of Fort Carson, Colo. The unit had barely begun operations in Iraq in late February when it was redeployed to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

The shift in the unit's focus was the result of renewed attention on bolstering efforts in Afghanistan, where the battalion specializes in route clearance — finding and destroying land mines and bombs.

In recent telephone conversations, Han had told his family that his job was becoming more difficult and more dangerous.

"The bombs are getting bigger and they are being sneakier," he told his brother, Jerod, in a recent telephone call. But he approached his task with optimism.

"He knew what he was doing was dangerous, but he knew it was a job that had to be done. And he was very proud to serve his country," said Melissa Han, his wife of 10 months.

Kimble Han entered the Army in January 2008 and by December was assigned to the combat engineers.

He deployed for Iraq in February, two days after a wedding reception for him and the former Melissa Lund, of Las Vegas. They married Jan. 16, and Han had three stepsons from the marriage.

Melissa Han said the two had met as students at Cheyenne High School in Las Vegas in 1994. They reconnected on a social networking site in 2007.

The couple had two more weeks together in August when Han had a leave and visited his family.

Han received numerous recognitions, medals and ribbons for his service. The list included the National Defense Service Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon and Combat Action Badge.

Han was the second of eight children. His father died in car accident when he was 14 and the family moved around a lot — Nevada, Colorado, Oregon and Washington — before settling in Utah County five years ago.