Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Jennie Lindberg holds a picture of her son, Staff Sgt. David Textor, who died Tuesday in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. David W. Textor, a father to five children, a brother to five sisters and a Green Beret, died Tuesday in Mosul, Iraq. Textor, who lived in Roanoke for two years before he joined the U.S. Army, was 27.

He was the lone soldier killed in a vehicle crash in the northern Iraqi city, according to Capt. Chris Augustine, public affairs officer for U.S. Army Special Forces Command.

Augustine said the incident was "non-battle," though he declined to give more details while it is under investigation.

Textor, whose home was Olympia, Wash., at the time of his death, still has relatives in Salem. Textor was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), based out of Fort Lewis, Wash.

Textor's family said Thursday that Textor was in the gunner position on a Humvee when he was thrown from the vehicle, suffering massive head trauma.

"Just like he told me before he left," his mother, Jennie Lindberg, said. " 'If I die, I'm doing what I want to do.' "

The Randolph, N.Y., native moved to Roanoke in 1998 as a new high school graduate who wanted a change of scene. But he was bored by the cooking jobs he took, and he enlisted in 2000, his family said.

The uniform was a perfect fit. Textor was accepted into the Army Rangers, then the Green Berets. He won many awards and decorations. He was a three-times-a-day weight lifter and a fearless motorcycle rider, his mother said.

Family members gathered on the porch of their Salem home Thursday afternoon, still piecing together news about the dedicated soldier known as "Crazy Dave."

Terra Textor held a stack of framed photos that traced her younger brother's rise through the Army.

"You got his Ranger ones," she said, crying softly as she flipped through the pictures. "You got his Green Beret ones."

"He hates that one," his mother said when she came to his first Army portrait -- he hadn't begun his serious weight lifting yet.

Terra Textor lay the pictures to the side. "It's too hard," she said.

"We were just thankful he was Green Beret and the best of the best, you know?" Lindberg said. "So much for that."

The family said that Textor would be buried in Fairbanks, Alaska. His first Army assignment was in Alaska and he met his wife, Colette, in Fairbanks.

"We were going to spend the rest of our lives there," she said Thursday night.

David Textor, who was deployed in May, was the ninth U.S. soldier killed in Iraq this month, according to www.icasualties.org, a Web site that tracks casualties in Iraq.

Of the 4,122 U.S. troops killed in Iraq, at least 37 have ties to Western Virginia.

Textor is survived by his wife, Colette, and their children Caleb, McKenna, Ryan, Boden and Jadon of Olympia, Wash.; his mother and stepfather, Jennie and Kevin Lindberg of Salem; his father, Bill Textor of Pine City, Minn; and sisters Laurie, Karen, Kellie and Terra of Salem, and Michelle of Roanoke.

News researcher Belinda Harris contributed to this report.