MADRAS, Ore. - Pfc. Thomas Tucker thrived on adrenaline, whether he was working construction in Oregon or manning checkpoints in Iraq.

As word spread Tuesday that his body had been found in Iraq along with that of another soldier, both tortured in what an Iraqi official called a "barbaric way," Tucker's family in Madras went into seclusion, emerging Wednesday morning for a television interview.

"Our son, as far as we're concerned, he has died for the freedom of everybody in the United States," Tucker's father, Wes Tucker, said in an interview on Wednesday.

He talked with pride about his son's enthusiasm and devotion to his work, but while he was grieving, he said he also understood that his son was a soldier in a war.

"Our son was there doing a job. The people over there that did this, they are sons and they're doing their job," he said. "I'm not trying to be cold, I love my son dearly, but they're doing their job."

His mother, Margarett Tucker, said the work was important to her son.

"That was very important to him, that people look up to him and know that he had done something worthwhile," she said.

A few days before he died, she said, they talked by telephone and she urged him to get enough sleep.

Tucker's body was believed to be one of two found near a checkpoint south of Baghdad. Army officers said the cause of death was "undeterminable at this point," and that it would take DNA tests to confirm the identities.

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On Tuesday, residents of what Wes Tucker called the "biggest small town that I've ever lived in" turned from faint hope to grief.

"I really didn't expect them to find him alive," said Don Huckathorn, who was eating at a local diner. "I was hoping - but it's kind of what was expected."

In the tight-knit farming town of Madras, "everybody is very somber today. We all feel the loss," said Loren Dunten, 31, who was visiting a makeshift memorial at a local elementary school fence. "It's our first war casualty, and people are really feeling it. "All we can do is pray and hope it wasn't in vain."

Residents hung signs that offered prayers for the Tuckers, along with yellow ribbons.

Mayor Frank Morton ordered flags lowered to half-staff and the Lions Club organized an effort to place American flags along a main city road.

Jeremy Hansen, 35, first cousin of the soldier, was taking pictures to compile a memory book for the Tuckers. Hansen's wife, Kathy, said Tucker had been willing to go to Iraq for the sake of other families.

"He said 'I'm not married and don't have any kids, so I'm going to go over there so that a soldier with a wife and kids can come home,' " she said.

Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, disappeared Friday after an attack in an area known as the "Triangle of Death." A third soldier, Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed.

An Iraqi defense ministry official said the men were tortured and "killed in a barbaric way."

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers and said the successor to terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had "slaughtered" them, according to a Web statement that could not be authenticated.

The language in the statement suggested the men were beheaded.

The Tucker family avoided media reports Tuesday to prevent further distress, said Kay Fristad, a spokeswoman for the Oregon National Guard, which is assisting them.

The Tuckers released a statement that said family members were devastated by the situation, but heartened by the community support.

"Tom has gained a much larger family through this ordeal than he had when he left home to go help to free the Iraqi people and protect his country from the threat of terrorism," the family said.

One friend of the family said he was "too depressed" to talk about the death, and others said the Tucker family had asked them not to speak to journalists.

Tucker is the 60th soldier with Oregon ties to die in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This keeps happening over and over and over again," said Caroline Badger, a local resident. "These young men go and they don't come back."

The Army said the bodies were found near an electrical plant, and the military had to delay recovering them until a bomb squad could clear it of improvised explosive devices.

The ROTC instructor at Madras High School, Paul Viscaino, said he had met Tucker and called him "an all-American kid, a good kid."

He said townspeople were horrified by reports of how Tucker died.

"I know there are a lot of people who are really upset right now," Viscaino said. "I don't care who your enemies are, you don't do that to people."

Trudy Cunningham, 51, a former co-worker of Tucker's at a local gas station, said she saw him just before he deployed in February and said he was proud to serve in the Army.

"I just wish they would hurry it up," she said. "There are so many of our kids over there, I just want them all to come home."

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)