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 Deployed for the last year in Afghanistan, Wilberto Sabalu Jr. was looking forward to the end of his tour in June when he would return home to spend the summer biking and swimming with his wife and two children.
But Sabalu, who grew up in Chicago and spent 17 years in the Army, died Sunday in Afghanistan when a member of the Afghan National Army turned on several soldiers and opened fire, family said.
Master Sgt. Sabalu, 36, died in Pol-e-Charki, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from small arms fire, defense officials said Tuesday. 
Illinois native Col. James W. Harrison Jr., 47, of Missouri, died in the same incident. Their deaths are under investigation, defense officials said.
After his Puerto Rican family moved to Chicago from New York as a young boy, Sabalu graduated from Lane Technical High School, said friend Ana Lozano, who was speaking on the family's behalf.
He joined the Army in 1990 and served in the military police throughout his career there.
Sabalu was assigned to the U.S. Military Police School in Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., where he lived with his wife Amy, who also works for the Army's military police. He had two children, Joshua, 12, and Nadia, 10.
He was a coach for his children's soccer team for several years and enjoyed family cookouts, Lozano said from Sabalu's Missouri home on Tuesday.
Sabalu was deployed to Afghanistan last June and was able to return home for Christmas.
"You're torn as a soldier and a father and a husband," Lozano said. "He was very good at what he did, so he was proud to be there. But he knew it was a sacrifice to be away from his family."
Sabalu received several awards in his military career, including the Bronze Star and the Meritorious Service Medal.
He served as a corrections specialist in Afghanistan, Lozano said.
Military officials told his family that Sabalu was driving a vehicle patrolling a prison's perimeter on Sunday, Lozano said. The Afghan National Army was training nearby.
That is when an Afghani soldier opened fire on two vehicles. Other members of the Afghan army killed the man, she said.
"He was a gung-ho soldier," she said. "He died doing what he loved."
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I would like to say thank you to you and the other soldier who was also killed in that attack for your service and sacrifice for our Country. And to your family and loved ones, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy.
A grateful citizen