MIDDLETOWN, DE (AP) A Delaware man who was shot while working as a defense contractor in Iraq was taken off life support and died, officials and family members said.

Gunmen ambushed a convoy operated by the U.S. civilian contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root on Jan. 14, killing two drivers and wounding two other people, both Americans, the U.S. military said.

One of the wounded was civilian Art Linderman, of Middletown, his family told The (Wilmington) News Journal.

“He wanted to contribute in the war on terrorism, to do something for America after 9/11,” his neighbor David Strawbridge said. “He was too old to fight, though I believe he had it in him, so when the opportunity came to work as a defense contractor he jumped on it.”

Linderman was rushed to a hospital in Germany, then flown to Walter Reed Hospital near Washington. On Jan. 18, he was moved to Christiana Hospital, and on Jan. 22, his family decided to take him off life support.

His family said one shot went through the door of Linderman’s truck and entered his body just under his arm. The bullet exited through his neck.

Strawbridge said he feels obligated to help Linderman’s family now to return a favor. When Strawbridge was deployed to the Middle East for nine months, “Art would check in with my family to make sure everything was going okay and to see how I was doing,” Strawbridge said.

That’s typical for Linderman, his daughter Deanna said.

“It’s just how he was,” she said. “He always helped.”

Linderman has been in war zones before. As a Marine corporal, he spent 18 months in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967.

He went to Iraq to be part of the rebuilding effort, working for Kellogg, Brown & Root, an engineering and construction branch of Halliburton.

“It was an opportunity to serve his country once again, to support the troops engaged in combat operations, and he took it,” Strawbridge said.

Middletown Mayor Ken Branner said he and other officials will help raise money for Linderman’s family.

“You hear about other people dying over there, but you never expect it to hit so close to home,” Branner said. “This is just so tragic.”

Bob Corsa, commander of the state’s Vietnam Veterans of America chapter, said he hopes other veterans will rally around the family of a “brother veteran.”

“We need, at this time, to take care of his family now that he no longer can,” said Corsa, a former Marine sergeant who was wounded in Vietnam.

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