FORT CARSON, Colo. -- A Fort Carson soldier died after being wounded by small-arms fire during combat in Iraq, the Army said Friday.

Pfc. Matthew E. Baylis, 20, of Oakdale, N.Y., died Thursday, a day after being wounded. He was assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment.

Alex Sternbach, 19, went to high school with Baylis in Oakdale.

"Out of anyone, I thought he would've made it out. He was always so positive," Sternbach said adding Baylis' greatest passion was the military.

"It was guns and the Army since day one when I met him. He's always been infatuated with it," he said. "I remember that when every single war video game came out, he always wanted me to play it."

Baylis' death raises the number of Fort Carson soldiers killed in the four-year war to 203. The 2nd Brigade has lost the most of any of the posts unit, with 96 killed in two yearlong combat tours in Iraq.