A Hawai'i soldier killed Sunday in Afghanistan was trying to save fellow soldiers under fire at a remote outpost, his father said yesterday.

Official details about the death of 1st Lt. Jonathan P. Brostrom, of 'Aiea, haven't been released by the military, but retired Col. David Brostrom, a 30-year Army veteran, said he's heard bits of information from his son's commanders and others in the Army.

"He died trying to reinforce, rescue his comrades at an outpost who were under heavy, heavy fire and at risk of being overrun," David Brostrom said.

"Jonathan died trying to take care of his comrades. That was his job."

Brostrom, 24, a Damien Memorial School and University of Hawai'i graduate, was one of nine U.S. soldiers killed by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades during a Taliban attack Sunday on their outpost in Wanat, a village near the Pakistan border.

The nine were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, based in Vicenza, Italy.

Sitting at their kitchen table in 'Aiea yesterday morning, David and Mary Jo Brostrom talked of how proud they were of their son. David also said he hopes the nine deaths are a wake-up call to national leaders.

He cited the Taliban's growing strength and outdated U.S. strategies. His son had told him his camp was fired at or probed nearly every day, and that they needed more troops.

"The military term for what we're doing over there is 'economy of force' in Afghanistan while we fight the war in Iraq," Brostrom said. "The soldiers are doing a great job with very little attention from our leadership in Washington, D.C.

"Right now Afghanistan is in a holding action until we get through the Iraq war and, unfortunately, we have not put in all of the resources required, so the enemy has slowly gained a foothold and they're probably stronger than they were when we went right after 9/11, as my son found out."

HOPES DEATH NOT IN VAIN

Brostrom called his son's leadership training and the leaders above him in Afghanistan the best in the world.

"I just hope my son's death drives some policy to do what we need to do right in Afghanistan in order to protect our soldiers."

While he grew up in a military family, Jonathan gave no indication he would follow in his father's footsteps until he graduated from Damien and joined ROTC at UH. (The Brostroms' other son, Blake, is now in UH ROTC.)

"He was always doing things that surprised us," Mary Jo Brostrom said. "For Mother's Day he came home this year without telling us. Some friends of his were over and made me dinner. At about 10 at night there was a knock on the door. One of the girls said, 'Mary Jo, there's a soldier with a bouquet of flowers at the door for you.' I thought she was joking, but there he was, straight from Afghanistan in his fatigues with a bouquet of flowers."

After he graduated from UH, Jonathan Brostrom became an airborne Ranger and a member of an air assault team.

"It made me proud, yes," David Brostrom said. "I was in Desert Storm, nothing like this. I was an Army aviator, my son was in the infantry. Totally different. He was at the point of the spear. He was twice the soldier I was because the training now is so rigorous. He did more in his couple of short years in the Army than I did in a lifetime."

'THEY WERE VULNERABLE'

David described the area where his son's final firefight took place.

"The outposts are set up as a kind of buffer to protect the main base. Jonathan was concerned about the one he was at and he was vocal about his concern for his fellow soldiers and the need for more troops. It was low in the mountains and the Taliban could fire down on them. It was also 20 kilometers away from the main base so the only way to get there was through the air. It was just too far out.

"He talked his leaders into moving the camp to a safer place that would be higher up and closer to the main camp. He knew it would be dangerous to move the camp, but he thought that's what they had to do because the fights were becoming so frequent."

David said his son was a platoon leader and oversaw about 45 U.S. soldiers and another 20 Afghan soldiers. His platoon, the "Chosen Few," was building a fire base camp about 200 yards from Wanat village when the Taliban struck on Sunday.

"They didn't have time to put up the perimeter," Brostrom said. "They were vulnerable."

The Brostroms said their son's funeral will be either Tuesday or Wednesday.

"He wanted to be buried in board shorts and slippers," Mary Jo said. "It was his last wish."