FORT BRAGG, N.C. — In the final minutes of Sgt. James Treber’s life, frigid water filling his armored truck, the 24-year-old freed a pinned comrade and shoved the man into the small air pocket he’d been using to breathe.

The Hawaii-born Treber didn’t make it out of the canal in Afghanistan alive, but he saved another Special Forces soldier. This afternoon, his family will be presented with a Soldier’s Medal — an award for heroism performed while not in combat.
“It is an honor. I am proud of him for it,” his father, Gordon Treber of Astoria, Ore., said Monday. “It is nice that he is being recognized for it officially.”
About 130 Soldier’s Medals have been awarded since late 2001, according to military records. Treber’s father, stepmother and wife plan to attend the ceremony.
For Sgt. 1st Class Joseph A. Serna, the June 2008 day is a painful memory.
Their truck had toppled from a narrow dirt road in Kandahar province and rolled upside down. In a statement made after the accident, Serna described struggling to get his seatbelt unfastened, but ammunition cans kept him trapped in the compartment.
“I felt a hand come down and unfasten my seatbelt and release my body armor. Sgt. Treber picked me up and moved me to a small pocket of air,” Serna said. “He knew there was not enough room for both of us to breathe so he went under water to find another pocket of air.”
Treber died shortly after.
Serna declined to talk about the rollover because it is still too traumatic; he said in an e-mail Tuesday that he relives it every day. He met Treber five months before they left for Afghanistan.
“I am truly thankful of James’ actions that day, and I am very pleased to see him rewarded for such an act,” Serna said in an e-mail. “Because of James’ actions that night, he will always be a hero to my regiment, my family and I.”
James Treber was born in Hawaii and grew up in San Diego, Calif.
The elder Treber said his son had a reputation for being able to do anything physical. He remembers his son shrugging off scrapes and bruises from skateboarding and mountain biking and in elementary school jumping from a 6-foot fence to a jungle gym.
“When he wanted a bicycle,” Gordon Treber said. “It had to be a stunt bike.”
James Treber learned toward the military early. He joined junior ROTC in high school and enrolled in a merchant marine apprentice program. Even before Treber graduated, his father, a 26-year Navy veteran, said his son was swayed by Army’s Special Forces pitch.
He eventually found his way to the Special Forces, joining in 2005. After completing almost a year of training, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, at Fort Bragg.
Gordon Treber said when he found out how his son died, he wasn’t surprised.
“He wasn’t one to submit. I am sure he was fighting to the last,” Treber said. “I don’t look at James as a victim of anything. He knew what he was getting into. He was well aware of the dangers, but he took that challenge.”