North Dakotans are joining in remembering those who served their country in the military.

An airman who is a native of Jamestown last summer received an Army commendation for helping save another soldier's life in Iraq.

Special Agent Travis Guthmiller is credited with helping the wounded gunner after the soldiers' vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. Guthmiller held the injured gunner's head up so he could breathe while he was taken to the hospital, after the April attack in Baghdad, military officials said.

"I was just kind of on autopilot," Guthmiller said. "You had to do what you had to do while you're out there and make sure it got done."

Guthmiller is stationed in Iraq from the Minot Air Force Base until January as a member of a weapons intelligence team. "It's cool to be an Air Force guy getting an Army award," he said.

Another Minot soldier is remembered 40 years after he was killed in action in South Vietnam.

Leon Lochthowe, a Marine private first class, is credited with pulling another wounded Marine to safety during fierce fighting near the Khe Sanh Combat Base in April 1967. Lochthowe died from an artillery rocket on Sept. 22, 1967, at age 22. The Marines flew a flag in his honor over a command post in Japan last July.

Vietnam veteran Gerald Loretta, who recovered from his wounds after Lochthowe's rescue and now lives in New York state, said he finally discovered Lochthowe's identity in 2004.

After he learned he would be unable to thank Lochthowe personally, he placed a memorial on (www.virtualwall.org).

"A true hero," Loretta wrote. "I will never forget your act of bravery."

Lochthowe's death in Vietnam was one in a series of tragedies for his family.

At age 20, he had been the sole survivor of a two-vehicle crash that killed his wife, their two young children and the driver of a second vehicle traveling in the wrong lane of a divided U.S. Highway 83 near the Minot airport in October 1965.

Not long afterward, Lochthowe received a draft notice into the Army. He decided if he was to enlist, he preferred the Marines, said his brother, Ron, of Minot.

Ron Lochthowe said Leon was a quiet person who let his actions speak for themselves, and he believes his brother considered his rescue of a fellow Marine as his responsibility to his comrades.