MISSION - Joe Rubio turned 24 four days before he died.

Next month, his son Nikolai will celebrate his own birthday - his first - without his father, who was killed Sunday night by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.

The Mission native was a computer fanatic who hoped to become a programmer when his time with the Army was up. He was deployed to Iraq in October.

Spc. Jose "Joe" Rubio was one of four men killed together in the bomb attack. Their deaths brought the toll of the war in Iraq to 4,000.

The Department of Defense has not yet confirmed to the media that Rubio was among those killed, but his family was informed Monday morning.

This May would have marked his two-year wedding anniversary with Jennifer Guerra, his high school sweetheart.

Rubio's brother, Edgar, said both his family and Jennifer's were having difficulty believing that Joe was dead.

"We're still in shock. It's not quite real," he said.

Since 2003, 23 other service members from the Rio Grande Valley have died in Iraq. Staff Sgt. Omar Flores, who was killed in July 2006, was also from Mission.

Rubio's mother Macaria, 67, had to be taken to the doctor when she heard the news. Her weak heart needed to be monitored.

Friends and teachers remembered Rubio as a smart, dedicated man. The youngest of nine siblings, he was born in Reynosa but attended school in Mission and became a U.S. citizen as a teenager, Edgar Rubio said. Six of his brothers and sisters live in Reynosa, Matamoros and Rio Bravo.

He earned an associate's degree in Computer Science at South Texas College in 2005.

"He was a very good student," said Yinping Nicole Jiao, a computer science instructor at STC who taught Rubio in two classes. She worked with him in the school's computer club and they visited sites like the Brownsville weather station to look at the networks used there.

He came back to visit her in the fall of 2006, before he was sent to Iraq. He didn't tell her he was going overseas, she said.

"He became a lot more mature, with muscles," she said. "He was more clear about what he was going to do in the future."

Jiao remembered his customized computer, which he used to play as many games as possible.

City of Mission staff member Aida Lerma said she visited with Jennifer Rubio and with Rubio's parents Monday and is arranging for food and support.

"It's been a very difficult day for them," she said. "I think they're a little distraught and they're not exactly comprehending all that's going to happen."

Family members said Monday they do not know when Rubio's body would be returned to the Rio Grande Valley or where they planned to bury him. Local veteran's organization America's Last Patrol has begun organizing a ceremony for Rubio, according to Lerma.

Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.