Army Spc. Keith V. Nepsa was known for changing his hair on a whim — at one point dying it blue and another time putting braids in it.

Close friends said it represented the kind of person Nepsa was: fun to be around and outgoing.

“The one thing I’m going to miss about him is his laugh,” Casey Webber said. “He could be in a crowd of 1,000 people, and you could tell him apart by his laugh.”

Nepsa, 21, of New Philadelphia, Ohio, was killed by a roadside bomb June 2 near Qayyarah, Iraq. He was a 2003 high school graduate, on his second tour and was assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas.

Barry Zehnder, a science teacher, said one thing set Nepsa apart from other...