The Department of Defense said Saturday that 21-year-old Spc. James A. Butz of Porter died Wednesday in Helmand province. Chesterton football coach John Snyder, who coached Butz in high school, tells The Times of Munster that relatives told him that the Army medic was treating an injured soldier when their truck was hit by a roadside bomb.

Butz was a 2009 Chesterton High School graduate. He served in the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Snyder says Butz was a hard worker who would have thrived in the military.