EL PASO, Texas -- As she flips through a Gasden High School year book, Libby Hamilton remembers her student Tony Carrasco.

“He was kind of quiet,” Hamilton said.

But Friday morning, she found out that a memory is all she would have of him. Army Spec. Tony Carrasco died while serving in Iraq on Nov. 4. He was killed by a sniper shooter, an Army official said.

"It was pretty upsetting to hear that he had passed in Iraq," Hamilton said.

Carrasco graduated from Gasden High school in 2003. Ms. Hamilton taught him landscaping. She said he also took a lot of agriculture and mechanics classes, along with welding.

"It didn't surprise me that he was in the military because that's the kind of character he was,” Hamilton said. “He wanted to help people. He wanted to serve. "He was a typical Gasden high school student, you know always very conscious, always willing to lend a hand.”

And for his country, he gave more than a hand. He gave his life. Ms. Hamilton's said she feels sympathy for his family.

“Concern about his family and how difficult it must for the family to lose one of their members and for the mother to lose a son," Hamilton said.

Carrasco was 25-years-old and stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas.