WEST VALLEY CITY — Larry Rougle left for his sixth combat tour of duty proudly and willingly. But he warned his mother that it was likely to be his last.
   
    "He told me that he didn't think that he would be making it home this time," Nancy Rougle remembered Wednesday, a day after learning that her 25-year-old son had been shot and killed in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan.
   
    It was Rougle's third tour in Afghanistan, according to family members. They said he also had completed three tours in Iraq.
   
    Rougle, a graduate of Granite High School, joined the Army in 1999. His brother, David Rougle, said that the military "straightened him out 180 degrees."
   
    "It was the best thing for him," David Rougle said. "He was proud to serve. He believed in what he was doing. And he would debate with anyone who said anything differently."
   
    David Rougle also understood that his brother's mission as a scout sniper near the Pakistani border was a dangerous one.
   
    "Afghanistan is more dangerous than Iraq," David Rougle said. "That is what he told me."
   
    Indeed, relative to the size of the forces in both nations, coalition forces in Afghanistan have suffered greater numbers of casualties than their counterparts in Iraq in each of the past three months.
   
    David Rougle said he also had discussed with his brother the possibility that this tour of duty might not end with a happy homecoming.
   
    "He knew the stakes," David Rougle said. "He tried not to think about it too much. He just said, if I get waxed, don't let there be any drama in the family."
    mlaplante@sltrib.com