Salem Medic Killed In Afghanistan Returns To Mass.

An Army medic from Salem killed in Afghanistan has come home for the final time.

The body of 25-year-old Sgt. James Ayube was flown from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford on Friday morning.

"(His father) was constantly proud of him and always telling us about him," Dick Galloway, a family friend who worked with Ayube's father at Hanscom, told NECN when the body arrived. "And we always kept track of what James was doing."

A motorcade is bringing the body back to Salem for a wake at St. James Church.

The funeral Mass is scheduled for Saturday at the same church followed by burial with full military honors in Harmony Grove Cemetery.

"Not only was James a great patriot and a fantastic soldier," Galloway said, "he became a medic because he wanted to save lives. He didn't go to war for any other reason."

Ayube was one of two soldiers killed by an IED Dec. 8 while on foot patrol in Balkh Province, Afghanistan.