ONTARIO (AP) Army Sgt. Joshua Brennan asked his mother last month to mail him a sturdy Bible because he was developing a strong relationship with God.

Brennan and his mother, Janice Gates of Ontario, communicated through Gates’ MySpace page. After Brennan’s platoon sergeant died in Afghanistan several weeks ago, she posted the song, “Heaven Was Needing a Hero,” to comfort her son.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I know heaven was needing him, too,” Gates said a day after learning her son died in combat.

Brennan, 22, died Friday from wounds he had suffered the day before in a firefight, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. He was serving his second tour in Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Combat Team.

His father, Michael Brennan of McFarland, Wis., told The Associated Press that after Taliban fighters shot his son in the chest, they tried to drag the wounded soldier away, but a medic threw grenades at them before he himself was killed.

“If it weren’t for that medic, horrific things could have happened to Joshua,” Gates said in an interview with The Oregonian newspaper.

Gates said her son’s enlistment was supposed to end in September, but a stop-loss order extended it a year.

“Josh struggled with that for a little while. He certainly wasn’t resentful of it,” Gates said. “He truly felt that what brought him to Afghanistan was a worthwhile and just cause, that they needed to be there to preserve independence and freedom in the United States and worldwide.”

Brennan, a Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient, was wounded in the leg in early August.

“Within days of being shot, he was insistent he wanted to be back out with his men,” Gates said. “He wanted to make sure they were OK.”

A 2003 graduate of Ontario High School, Brennan ran the hurdles, played football and hunted elk with his grandfather, uncle and stepfather, Jared Cutler. After the military, Brennan intended to attend college and pursue a career in forensic science or criminology, Gates said.

Brennan returned home on leave in May, and friends and family threw a party and “lavished him with love,” his mother said.

“When I was raising Josh, I wasn’t financially able to do things like pay for his car insurance, pay for a vehicle, pay for a cell phone, these extra amenities kids get these days,” Gates said. Brennan worked a part-time job at a print shop and paid for his own extras while maintaining above-average grades.

“He was just such a responsible young man,” she said. “I know he would have done absolutely amazing things in his life.”