Staff Sgt. Richwell A. Doria, 25, died Nov. 7 after being struck by small-arms fire during an air assault mission near Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

Kazue Miyano, formerly of Kaua'i, said an Army chaplain came to visit her daughter, Jasmine, on O'ahu the night of Nov. 7 to tell the daughter her husband had been killed in Iraq.

"They told her that Rich's team was on a rescue mission," Miyano said in an e-mail. "He jumped out of the helicopter to go and get more guys when he got attacked and shot. He was transported to the hospital but was dead on arrival.

"He was a great man, and we will all miss him very much," said Miyano, of Las Vegas.

She said that during the week prior to his death, Doria called relatives here to tell them about a close call.

"His team was out on mission when the Humvee in front of him blew up," Miyano said, recalling a telephone conversation with Doria.

She said her late son-in-law told her and others here that he jumped out of the Humvee he was in to go and help his friends who were screaming for help.

"They were missing limbs but alive," Miyano said. "He started getting them out, one by one, from the mangled mess and even kept slapping one of them so that they would not slip into oblivion. He was so devastated with what he saw, he could not sleep. All he saw were his wounded friends and the parts they were missing."

Miyano said Doria told family members here that all of the wounded soldiers survived thanks to him and the rest of his team members. Then Doria called his wife on the Monday prior to his own death to say that he was to be awarded the Medal of Valor.

"He said he told the team that he wasn't the only one that got the wounded out, but they insisted that if it wasn't for him, they wouldn't of known what to do." Miyano said. "He was quite excited about the medal."

Doria was assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.