Army Sgt. Dustin J. Perrott was the kind of leader who infused others with motivation and the sort of person with whom it was impossible not to share a smile, his commander said. To friends and family, he was brave, charismatic and selfless. His wife and friends called him the Gentle Giant.

Perrott, 23, of Fredericksburg, was an infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. He died Thursday of wounds suffered when a bomb detonated in Miri, Afghanistan, the Army said in a statement yesterday.

"Everyone always seemed drawn to his kindness," his wife, Anna Marie, 20, said in a statement. The couple were married in August 2004. "Dusty was a huge guy. . . . That guy that would give you the shirt off his back and the last dollar to his name."

Since deploying to Afghanistan in February, Perrott was rarely able to contact his parents. The last time he phoned, his stepfather, John Calamos, scrawled the cellphone number and time on a piece of paper that he stuck on the fridge: 6:07 a.m., June 6. Perrott had borrowed a friend's phone, and that number had appeared on the home phone's caller ID, Calamos said.

"He told us we probably wouldn't hear from him in a while because he was going on a mission, and in Afghanistan, it's rural, not like Baghdad," Calamos said.

Perrott, who joined the Army in 2004, never feared action, his family said. He volunteered to go to serving there from December 2004 to March 2005.

"I want to serve my country. I'm proud to serve my country," he often said, according to his wife's statement. At age 16, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Perrott felt a calling to enlist but had to wait until he graduated from high school. He also sought to follow in the footsteps of his father, a sergeant, who died when Perrott was 4, his family said.

After completing training at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2004, he rose to the rank of sergeant.

"Sgt. Perrott was a tremendous paratrooper who had been a leader in this organization for a long time," Lt. Col. Timothy McAteer, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, said in a statement. ". . . You just couldn't help but smile when you talked to him."

As early as third grade, Perrott was the class clown, his mother recalled. In high school and beyond, he channeled that energy into playing drums with his band.

"Dusty had an ear for music like nothing I've ever seen," wrote his wife. He couldn't read sheet music, but he could hear something once, like an Elton John tune, and play it right back without error, she said.

Among the decorations he received are the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Army Achievement Medal.

Perrott will be buried beside his father, in Fredericksburg.