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BOISE, Idaho (AP) \u2014 In the days since Dane Partridge was fatally wounded while serving as a volunteer soldier in Ukraine<\/a>, his sister has found moments of comfort in surprising places: First, a misplaced baseball cap discovered in her laundry room, then in a photo of a battered pickup truck with only one tire intact.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old Idaho man died Tuesday from injuries sustained during during a Russian attack in Luhansk.<\/p>\n

A former U.S. Army infantryman, Partridge felt \u201cspiritually called\u201d to volunteer with the Ukranian military<\/a> as they defend the country from invading Russian forces, his sister Jenny Corry said. He flew to Poland on a one-way ticket in April, his rucksack packed with body armor, a helmet and other tactical gear.<\/p>\n

\u201cMade it to the embassy, getting on a bus for the border,\u201d Partridge wrote on his Facebook page on April 27. \u201cFrom this point on I will not likely be giving locations or actions for opsec reasons. I will let you all know I\u2019m alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Partridge joined a military unit that included several volunteers from other countries, Corry said, the men mostly relying on interpreters to communicate. Partridge and his fellow soldiers were in Severodonetsk, a city in the Luhansk region, when he was hit in the head with shrapnel during an attack by Russian fighting vehicles, Corry said.<\/p>\n

The unit had no stretchers and was still under attack, Corry said, but Partridge’s fellow soldiers carried him out on a blanket and loaded him and other injured colleagues into a drab-painted pickup truck to rush them to safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a picture of the truck,\u201d Corry said in a phone interview Friday. The photo shows a drab-painted pickup with shredded rubber hanging off the wheel hubs. All but one of the tires were destroyed in the grim rush to safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a family, we really like that picture of the vehicle \u2014 it speaks to the bravery of how they tried to save their men, and the way they pushed that vehicle to its last leg just to get to the hospital,\u201d she said. \u201cIt speaks volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n