LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Mourners joined the wife and two young children of Army Staff Sgt. Benjamin Gill Prange to honor the slain soldier as an American hero.

Prange died July 24 after the vehicle he was riding in hit an explosive device in Afghanistan.

The Rev. Michael Ryan described the 30-year-old Prange as a hero in many ways.

He was a hero after losing his parents at a young age and helping raise his brother and sister. And he was a hero when, after marrying his wife, Elizabeth, he decided he needed to enlist in the military in part to provide for them.

Ryan noted, “We thank God for giving us Benjamin.”

Flags lined a 3½ mile route to the Lincoln cemetery where Prange was buried.