By Ari Bloomekatz
Enquirer staff writer

A soldier from Hillsboro is recovering in Germany after being seriously injured in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq Friday.

Army officials said two of the four other soldiers riding in a Humvee, including one from Columbus, were killed during the blast, and one other soldier was injured.

Alissa Dean said her husband, Spc. Terry Dean of the 216 Engineering Battalion of the Ohio National Guard based in Chillicothe, had his right leg amputated below the knee.

Dean said Army officials assured her that her husband would be OK Friday evening, despite the amputation and treatment for shrapnel in his elbow.

"I was shocked," Dean said, remembering the call she received Friday. "I was just thankful that he was alive."

Dean was in a U.S. military hospital in Germany Sunday night and would likely be flown to another hospital in Washington, D.C., today for further treatment and rehabilitation that will last nearly a month, his wife said.

Dean was called to active duty in December when his wife was pregnant with their daughter, Gracie Jo, Alissa said.

Lt. Charles L. Wilkins III, 38, of Columbus, was killed during the explosion.

Wilkins was deployed to Iraq in February and was looking forward to helping rebuild the war-torn nation, his sister Lorin Wilkins said.

More than 30 Ohio soldiers and Marines have been killed in Iraq since the war started.

"He was very upset about that (the other soldier's deaths)," Dean said of her husband. "They're like family over there."

Staff Sgt. Paul Brondhaver of Union Township, also of the 216th, was injured in a similar attack in Iraq in early July.

Brondhaver said a good friend of his died in the attack.

"It's like if you lose a family member at home, and you escalate it (that experience) a hundred times. That may just touch a little piece of what we go through when you lose someone to the enemy," Brondhaver said Sunday.

"When a soldier loses a fellow comrade to the enemy, it's the most painful thing that a soldier goes through."

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The Associated Press contributed.

E-mail abloomekatz@enquirer.com