His adventurous spirit took him everywhere. From random road trips with friends and later to Bosnia and Iraq, Felix del Greco loved his country and wanted his actions to reflect that.

“He loved America, but America in the sense that it could stand for what it wanted,” said Greg Johnson, del Greco’s neighbor freshman year. “I remember him saying that the flag stands for what you want it to stand for and what you make it stand for.”

In March, del Greco was sent to Iraq as part of the Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 102nd Infantry, New Haven, Conn. He was killed in combat Friday when an improvised explosive device and small arms fire struck his mounted patrol, the Department of Defense announced. He was 22.

Del Greco began his studies at Northeastern in 2000, he took classes on and off between military training and service.

A native of Simsbury, Conn., Johnson said del Greco was particularly fond of his home state. He said his friend dreamed of being the mayor of Hartford one day.

“He loved Connecticut and wanted to go back and move there,” said Johnson, a senior political science major. “He had his house all picked out.”

Johnson and del Greco met when the two were freshman living in White Hall. They quickly formed a bond as fans of the band Dropkick Murphys and their group of friends soon expanded.

The group remained close even after del Greco was sent to serve on a peace-keeping mission in Bosnia after his freshman year. When he returned, he spent some time training at West Point and later in Louisiana and Texas. He returned to take classes last fall and winter quarters before he was again called to service.

This time, his mission would turn to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“Above all else, he just wanted to help people. That was the number one reason he volunteered to go,” said Kevin Thomson, a senior communications major who also lived near del Greco in White Hall. “He would have given anyone the shirt off his back if he needed it.”

Thomson said he found out about del Greco’s death through a chain of people, though he was on his friend’s military contact list.

“It’s a bit of a shock, but he and I talked [about what] might happen while he was there despite everybody’s wishing that it wouldn’t and he would come home safe. A lot of us, unfortunately, had to deal with the fact that it might,” Thomson said.

He said the last time he saw his friend was when del Greco came to Boston for part of his week and a half leave before his March 14 departure date.

Johnson said del Greco would often show up in Boston in between service, and the two would jump in his Jeep Cherokee that he called “Stone Ghost” and head anywhere they felt like, from Montreal to New York. His friends said he never explained the car’s nickname.

Johnson said his friend enjoyed just driving and talking and also listening to music. He said del Greco was a big fan of Bruce Springsteen and an aspiring song writer himself, always carrying around a notebook to jot down song lyrics.

Peter Ferraro, a senior communications major who lived next door to del Greco in White Hall, said he and his friend took a road trip to the Midwest during last year’s spring break. He said del Greco wanted to see the “Badlands,” in honor of the Springsteen song with the same name.

He even said his friend reminded him of “the Boss” when he first met him.

“I definitely thought he was a character because he was just unlike anybody I had ever really met before. He just had a working class, Bruce Springsteen look about him,” Ferraro said.

Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier said he extended his condolences to del Greco’s family through a friend who answered the phone at his house.

“A year ago he left the university to go into the military to serve his country, and it’s just an awful tragedy that occurred. He was a smart young man with a bright future ahead of him,” Klotzbier said.

Del Greco’s family could not be reached for comment.

As of Monday, 671 U.S. service members had died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq last year, according to the military, the Associated Press reported.