STARKE, Fla. - Members of his high school graduating class remembered Bryan Berky for bringing joy to his classmates.

"No matter what was going on, we could always count on him to bring a smile to anyone's face with a joke or something funny he would say," said Jaime Lyn Register, a classmate of Berky's in Bradford County (Fla.) High School's class of 2002. "It was like we could count on him to provide a light moment in the most serious of situations."

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Bryan Berky, 25, died Saturday in an apparent insurgent ambush in Afghanistan.

Berky leaves behind his high school sweetheart, Erin Williams, whom he married a year after he graduated and just before he enlisted in the Air Force. He also leaves behind his infant son, Harrison, who was born to the couple on Dec. 18, 2008. He was the son of Sonya and William Berky of Melrose, Fla.

Former classmate John Moore was a co-anchor with Berky on Bradford High School's morning news show.

"He was really a charismatic person who got away with quite a bit," Moore said. "We were taking a video recording class together, and he would take the camera and jump right into the middle of another class and interrupt the lessons and tell the teacher we needed to do it for our video class."

Moore was among the classmates who occasionally held jam sessions at Berky's house, where Berky played guitar, usually preferring punk rock.

Danielle (Johnson) Byerly, another classmate, said those jam sessions in Bradford County, Fla., were a precursor of Berky's band while he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan.

"He called that band 'My Friend The Artery' and he really enjoyed that," Byerly said. "He and I talked over the Internet, and the last time I talked to him - about a week ago - he told me that he was due home in like nine or 10 days."

Byerly said Berky also told her he planned to make a career out of the military.

Berky's former high school biology and anatomy teacher, Christie Torode, predicted there would be a large turnout for his memorial services.

"He was always very funny, always a good student with a smile on his face," Torode said.