SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - It was a phone call Scott Simpson was nearly too busy to take. But it was his son calling from Iraq, so he took the call.

Simpson says he's glad he did, because Sunday's conversation with Army Specialist Christopher Simpson was the last he ever had with his son.

The next day, the 23-year-old soldier from the Syracuse area was
killed along with another solider when their convoy was hit with a
roadside bomb in Baghdad.

It was the younger Simpson's second combat tour in three years. He was based at Colorado's Fort Carson, home of the 4th Infantry Division.

Scott Simpson of tells the Syracuse Post-Standard that his son was the kind of child a parent dreams about.

The father lives in Memphis in Onondaga County and is a first sergeant with the Air National Guard.

His son attended Jordan-Elbridge schools just west of Syracuse until ninth grade, then attended schools in Rome, where his mother lived.

Christopher Simpson's military funeral will be held next week.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)