When Ruth Wiley talks about her son, she recalls a conversation she had with him almost two years ago. He was serving on a German army base and wanted to help some injured soliders.

“He said, ‘Mom, these guys don’t have hats or coats to wear when they want to go outside,’” Ruth Wiley remembered.

So she and several other women at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in North Bend went to work knitting hats and scarves.

He had a great consideration for others. That’s what came to Wiley’s mind when she learned her son, Lt. Col. James L. Wiley Jr., died in Afghanistan on Thursday.

Lt. Col. Wiley, 46, was about a year into his first tour of duty in Afghanistan when he was killed.

“Lt. Col. James L. Wiley, 46, of North Bend, Ore., died Sept. 18 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained in a non-combat related incident,” according to a U.S. Department of Defense press release Friday.

He was assigned to the 27th Brigade Combat Team, New York Army National Guard, Syracuse, N.Y. The incident is under investigation, the press release said.

U.S. Army personnel came to Ruth and James Wiley’s North Bend home Thursday afternoon to tell them about their son’s death.

“They said gunfire, but they didn’t have any detailed information,” said Ruth Wiley.

Lt. Col. Wiley graduated from North Bend High School in 1979, after helping the Bulldogs win that year’s wrestling state tournament. Three years earlier, North Bend Mayor Rick Wetherell coached Wiley as an offensive guard and defensive tackle on the freshman football team.

“He was a dedicated young man and a straight shooter,” Wetherell said Friday afternoon.

He also taught Wiley in his English class.

“You could tell when he was 14 years old that he would set goals for himself and attain them. And he did. Obviously we are quite proud of him,” Wetherell said.

Wiley went to the University of Oregon, where he joined the ROTC and later the National Guard. He got a law degree from Willamette University in 1992.

Wiley also is survived by his wife, Teresa Wiley, and three daughters: Ruth, Jamie and Sarah.

“His pride is in his daughters,” Ruth Wiley said.

They were present when he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in February 2006. He served in Germany for 12 years before the start of his Afghanistan tour.

Wiley was serving as chief legal officer at Kaiserslautern Army Base in Kaiserslautern, Germany, when he gave his mom that memorable call.

It was around Christmas 2006. He had a favor to ask.

His office was right below the floor where wounded soldiers stayed before returning home. They often arrived straight from the battlefield and had difficulty coping with the German winter. He wanted to help.

That was when his mom and other volunteers started sending shipments of warm clothing from North Bend in January 2007. By the end of the year, hats and scarves were still heading overseas, but not to Germany.

They were going to Afghanistan.

“His hats just followed him,” said Bernie Swenson, one of the women at Holy Redeemer who helped knit the clothes.

Ruth Wiley said she will remember James as her boy who enjoyed life and was happy.

“If he had one piece of advice, he would say, ‘Love your family and never forget to say ‘I love you’ when you say good-bye, because you may never get that chance again,’” she said.