GREENEVILLE (AP) - A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier from Greeneville has died in Afghanistan. Staff Sgt. Rusty Christian's mother, Donna Ball, of Kingsport, told the Greeneville Sun Christian died earlier this week along with three Afghan soldiers when a roadside bomb exploded near a military truck they were walking beside.

"You never think this day will come," she said.

Ball said she learned of her son's death Thursday afternoon in a telephone call from his wife, Amber, who lives with the couple's 3-year-old and 11-month old children at Fort Lewis, Wash., where Christian was based before he deployed.

The 24-year-old Green Beret is also survived by his brother, Aaron Christian, of Greeneville, as well as his mother and stepfather, Jim Ball, of Kingsport.

He graduated from Greeneville High School in 2004 and enlisted in the Army shortly afterward. Ball said the Iraq veteran had only been at Camp Cobra in Afghanistan since the first week of January.

The family will receive friends at Hamlett-Dobson Funeral Home in Kingsport next week before Christian's body is taken to Arlington National Cemetery for burial.

"He wanted to come back to Tennessee one more time," Ball said.