Spc. Dennis P. Weichel Jr., 29, a US soldier stationed in Afghanistan and father of 3 died while saving the life of an Afghan girl.

While riding in a convoy, Weichel and his unit noticed that kids were running out to the road to collect some empty shell casings. While they were calling the kids to get out of harm’s way, one girl ran back to the road and was in the way of a 16-ton Mine-Resistant-Ambush-Protected vehicle.

Without a moment’s notice, Weichel lifted the girl out of the way, but the truck ran him over instead. Unfortunately, the injuries he sustained were fatal and he died a few days later.

“Specialist Dennis Weichel’s life was marked by bravery, selflessness, and commitment to others — and unfortunately it was in demonstrating these remarkable characteristics that it was lost,” Governor Lincoln Chafee said. “And he will be remembered, and mourned, by people across our state as a great Rhode Islander.”

Flags are lowered at half staff in Providence, R.I until the soldier’s burial. He is survived by his fiance and three children.