Robert S. Pugh

MERIDIAN, Miss. — A National Guard soldier who died of his injuries after helping a wounded comrade was buried here Thursday.

Sgt. Robert Shane Pugh, 25, died March 2 after an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was a combat medic with the Army National Guard’s 155th Brigade Combat Team.

“Shane was an expert in dealing with wounds that come when that happens,” said Maj. Gen. Harold Cross, adjutant general for the Mississippi National Guard. “Though he was injured himself, another soldier lay wounded next to him. Shane directed a group of primarily engineers on what to do to stop that soldier’s bleeding enough to where he could be stabilized.”

Cross said the other soldier, Sgt. Ellis Martin, needed 52 units of blood while en route from Iraq to a hospital in Germany. Cross said Martin has undergone four surgeries at Walter Reed Army...