WHEATFIELD — The Dikcis family is bearing the weight of a war.

Alan Dikcis died Friday, the casualty of a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

His older brother, Stanley Dikcis, still suffers from the wounds and head trauma he sustained when a roadside bomb nearly killed him in the same country 1z years ago.

A stepbrother, Thomas A. Cannuli, is serving in the Army in Iraq.

Stanley Dikcis cried tears of despair Saturday afternoon, struggling to find words to describe his 21-year-old brother.

“My brother was so dedicated to the Army,” said Dikcis, 23, who served in the 101st Airborne Division before his medical retirement. “He was my best friend, and he looked up to me so much. I’m still numb, trying to hold it all together. I’ve seen a lot of death.”

The Dikcis family, of Wheatfield, learned about their son’s death Friday afternoon. He had been scheduled to come home for a two-week leave next month . His service was to end in July, although family members said he

had just re-enlisted for seven more years, with plans to switch jobs to become a helicopter mechanic.

A 2006 Niagara Wheatfield graduate, Alan was remembered as a loving father with a polite disposition and “knockout” smile. He enjoyed riding his yellow and black motorcycle with friends. Everyone knew of his endless devotion to the Army.

Alan, one of six boys in his family, was part of the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum.

Saturday, two American flags were displayed outside the Dikcis family’s cream-colored house on Walmore Road, where a yellow ribbon was tied around a large tree in the front yard. Inside, relatives gathered around the kitchen table to console one another. The refrigerator was covered with favorite photos of Alan, his daughter, Sophia Brown, 3, of Niagara Falls, and his family.

“This is just going to be very, very hard,” said his father, Robert Dikcis, in a telephone interview from Dover, Del., where he was waiting for his son’s body to be returned. “He will be very missed. I had a lot of plans for us together to do things. This will be very hard. I’m kind of at a loss.”

“He was a good son and loyal to what he was doing,” said his stepmother, Gricela “Gigi” Dikcis, wearing a gray Army sweatshirt. “He was a good father to his daughter, and a good friend to all his friends, and his father is very proud of him.”

Robert said Alan was looking forward to a different assignment within the Army. His job — fixing equipment that breaks down while being used to clear roadside bombs — is among the most risky.

“He had one of the worst things to do there. It was like Russian roulette — a mechanic and route clearance,” the elder Dikcis said.

The Dikcis family is waiting to learn more details of Alan’s death, but so far has learned that he was riding in a vehicle near the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, Afghanistan, when it hit an improvised explosive device. He died en route to the hospital.

Stanley suffered a traumatic brain injury and paralysis in his left leg — requiring hospitalization and rehabilitation for a year before he returned home July 7. Stanley had just two days to see Alan before Alan was deployed on July 9 to Afghanistan.

“[Alan] joined the Army because of me. He was so proud of me,” said Stanley, wiping tears from his eyes, sitting in the Gate Coffee Shop on Lockport Road with some of his brother’s friends, just a short distance from his family’s home.

After Alan visited his brother about three years ago at Fort Knox, Ky., where Stanley underwent basic training, he came home and immediately went to the recruiting office to enlist.

The last time the family heard from Alan was on Thursday, when he communicated via Facebook with his stepmother.

“He had been on his way to a mission and their equipment had been so badly damaged,” Gigi Dikcis recalled Saturday. “He was concerned they weren’t ready. He knew someone would get hurt.”

Jason Evrard, 25, grew up with Alan and Stanley and attended school with them.

“[Alan] was a good father and would take the shirt off his back for you. He was smart and ambitious,” Evrard said. “Every man has a fear. He put his fear aside for his country and family.”

Jason’s grandmother, Jan Evrard, who lives next to the Dikcis family, remembered him as kind.

“He was a very nice, polite, mannerly boy, who thought he should fight for his country,” she said.

The family had been thinking of installing a lighted flagpole on their front lawn to symbolize when “the boys would come and go,” Gigi said. “My husband is so proud of all of them. They all enjoyed what they were doing.”