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FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Army medic Jeremy Loveless was not supposed to be outside the protection of his Stryker vehicle while it patrolled a volatile city in Iraq, but volunteered anyway for the dangerous job as lookout, military officials said at his memorial service on Monday.

Loveless died on Memorial Day while watching for suspicious vehicles as U.S. soldiers cordoned off a search area in Mosul, Iraq.

Loveless was remembered at a service at Fort Wainwright as a medic who was willing to take on any task to protect fellow soldiers, including voluntarily manning the gunner position. Normally, medics ride in the belly of the Stryker, waiting for a call to treat injured soldiers or civilians.

“I should not have let him in the hatch he was a medic,” wrote a commander of Alpha Co., in a letter that was read at the service. “But he stood in the hatch ......