PORTAGE | U.S. Army Sgt. Robert J. Barthel is recovering from his injuries received in Iraq last week at Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Calif.

"He is doing well, amazingly well physically and psychologically," said his father, Robert Barthel of Portage.

The younger Barthel, 25, who spent some of his younger years in Portage and Valparaiso, was injured July 8 when the vehicle in which he was riding was struck by an improvised explosive device while he and his squad were on combat patrol near the joint security site in Nasser Wa Salam, Iraq.

The attack injured four others in his squad and killed Spc. William McMillan III, 22, of Lexington, Ky.

Barthel, a squad leader, was initially transported to a military hospital in Germany where doctors amputated his right foot. Over the weekend, said his father, he was transported home and eventually was admitted to the medical facility in San Diego.

"He's already wanting to get out of bed. He is in good spirits. But we all feel really bad about the kid who didn't make it," said Barthel, adding that McMillan, a third-generation military member, "practically shielded my son" from receiving worse injuries.

The elder Barthel said family members intend to travel to San Diego to visit his son. Barthel was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, where his wife, Elena, and five children live. The couple became parents of twin boys on June 30 and Barthel said he believed his son's wife would be bringing the twins and a third son to San Diego to see their father. The younger Barthel's mother, Sally Cleveland of Sturgis, Mich., and her husband, are also scheduled to fly to the West Coast.

Barthel said the Army will be paying for transportation for himself, his son's mother and wife.

"The Army has been so nice in keeping contact with us and letting us know how he is doing," said Barthel, adding, as fate would have it, his wife's cousin works at the Naval hospital and has been able to keep tabs on his son.