COLORADO SPRINGS — When Dina Wood first saw James “Jimmy” Pirtle in middle school, his hair was dyed green and styled into spikes.
The Colorado Springs native wasn’t the typical person who would grow up to join the Army, excel as a soldier and ultimately lose his life in combat.
“He was a good boy who turned into a really good man,” Wood said.
Sgt. James Pirtle was killed Friday in Afghanistan in an attack that also killed two other Americans and two allied troops. He was 21.
His mother, Patricia Pirtle, said her son was among the three American soldiers who died last week. An Army chaplain gave Patricia Pirtle the news Friday.
“The storm door was open and it only took me a couple of seconds to notice she was a chaplain,” Patricia Pirtle said. “She didn’t even have to tell me. I knew.”
Pirtle leaves behind his mother, father James Pirtle and sisters Jennifer Bergstrom and Jacqueline Pirtle.
Jimmy Pirtle graduated from Globe Charter School in 2006 and immediately enlisted in the Army, despite his mother’s fears.
“Coming from a military family, I was very proud of him, but my first response was, ‘Why can’t you wait until it’s peacetime?” Patricia Pirtle said.
She said he was very patriotic and an enthusiastic soldier who quickly worked his way up to sergeant. In Afghanistan, he often volunteered for missions that he knew would be dangerous, his mother said.
It worried her, but she took solace in knowing he was due home in June.
Patricia Pirtle said her son will be buried at Fort Logan cemetery in Denver so he can be surrounded by other soldiers. The family is scheduling his funeral.
Read more remembrances of Jimmy Pirtle at .
