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Baltimore, MD (AP) ― Army Spc. Kendell K. Frederick, killed in Iraq during the deadliest month for Maryland troops this year, died while trying to complete an application for U.S. citizenship, his mother said Tuesday, as she pledged to push for changes to ease the citizenship process for soldiers.

Frederick, a 21-year-old Trinidad native, was riding in a convoy to provide fingerprints needed for the application process on Oct. 19 when a bomb exploded by a road near Tikrit, his mother, Michelle Murphy, tearfully told reporters in the living room of her Randallstown home.

"I got a letter from his commander stating the only reason he was on that convoy is because he was on his way to do the fingerprints again, trying to become an American citizen, and died doing it," Murphy said.

Murphy described the difficulties she and her son faced while trying to complete paperwork for Frederick's citizenship, hurdles she doesn't believe soldiers at war should face. Frederick had been in the United States since 1999.

"I just feel it's so wrong, and it's so unfair that, you know, how can you send somebody to fight a war and deny them to be a citizen," she said. "He had to go through such a big hassle to get it, and there's no problem you signing and saying 'I'm willing to die for this country,' and that's what my son did."

Murphy and her family are hoping to find lawmakers willing to streamline the citizenship process for immigrants in the military.

"I believe there should be some laws on the books that when you sign up to be in the military and you decide to give your life, I believe that you should automatically become an American citizen," she said.

Frederick, who was the eldest of four children, will be granted citizenship posthumously at a memorial service Friday.

But Murphy said she believes that's too late.

"To me, I feel like, I don't need it," she said. "I'm an American citizen. He doesn't need it, he's already dead, and I feel if this can help another family -- somebody's child, somebody's husband, somebody's mother -- if this can help somebody else, it's going to be worth my fight -- that I will feel that my son died for something."

Murphy sat with family members as she remembered Frederick as a well-loved member of the family who made her proud. Frederick had surprised the family for a visit several of weeks before his death.

"He had matured into this real beautiful person," she said.

Murphy said Frederick didn't like being in Iraq, but was proud to be a soldier and enjoyed ROTC in high school.

Frederick, a mechanic who worked on power generators, was assigned to the Army Reserve's 983rd Engineer Battalion, based in Monclova, Ohio. Murphy said he joined the military after graduating from high school in 2003. She said he had been working on becoming a citizen for about four months. He had been in Iraq for about 10 months.

Frederick was the fifth Maryland resident who was killed in a week's time last month. October was the deadliest month for Maryland troops since November 2004, when five GIs were killed. Twenty-nine Marylanders have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to Associated Press records.

Murphy said she didn't understand why the nation was at war in Iraq. She described President Bush as "cold-hearted," saying she didn't believe he had given the nation a good reason for being in the war.

"I don't believe a lot of the soldiers over there know why they're over there," she said. "My son didn't know why he was over there."

Murphy said Frederick's death has been extremely hard on the family.

"Even harder is that he doesn't have a face to look at, and I won't be able to ever see him again," she said. "It's going to be a closed casket, and just having that picture in your mind of what he looks like is just even more painful."

(© 2005 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)