The body of Sgt. Dennis Weichel, 29, who died to prevent an Afghan child from being run over by a 16-ton armored fighting vehicle, is on its way back to the United States, where he will be buried Monday.
Weichel died when he ran into the path of the vehicle to grab the little girl, who had run into the street to pick up shell casings, the Army stated, according to
FoxNews.com. The girl suffered no injuries, but Weichel, a Rhode Island National Guardsman, was run over by the vehicle and died.
A number of Afghan children were picking up the casings, which can be sold and recycled in Afghanistan. Weichel and other soldiers in his convoy guided the children out of harm’s way as their vehicles approached, but the girl dashed back into the street as the fighting vehicle arrived. And that is when Weichel came to the rescue.
“He would have done it for anybody,” Staff Sgt. Ronald Corbett, who deployed with Weichel to Iraq in 2005, said in a quote posted on the U.S. Army web site. “That was the way he was. He would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He was that type of guy.”
Weichel lived in Providence and was engaged to be married. He and his fiancée have three young children.
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