Joining the Marine Corps after high school, the gifted artist and natural mechanic fixed helicopters and nurtured friendships.

Zimmerman left the Marines after five years, joined the Marine Reserves and thought about college. But nothing else fit.

After terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, Zimmerman rejoined the Marines. He served in Afghanistan and then in Iraq.

"When he decided to go into the military, I said, 'Why are you going into the Marines?' " recalled his father, Mike Zimmerman of Stephenville, Texas. "He said, 'Because they're the best.' "

Sgt. Christopher M. Zimmerman on Wednesday gave his last to the best. He was killed in a midday gunbattle near Fallujah, his father said. He was 28.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Zimmerman was a member of a reconnaissance unit based at Camp Lejeune near Jacksonville.

Sgt. Zimmerman didn't talk much about the Iraq war or his role in it, said his father, a police officer at Tarleton State University in Stephenville.

"He said that they were accomplishing their mission quite well," the elder Zimmerman said in a phone interview Thursday night.

Growing up near Round Rock, Texas, Chris Zimmerman tinkered with cars.

"He worked on 'em, tried to make 'em faster or sound better or whatever he could do to, in his mind, improve 'em," his dad said.

And Zimmerman was always eager to lend friends a hand.

When Zimmerman left the Marines after his first stint, his superior officers spoke highly of him, his father said. But what really impressed Mike Zimmerman was what those who had worked under his son thought of him.

"I'm pretty much like anybody else who's lost a son or daughter. I don't think it matters how they die."