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OVIEDO, Fla. — Alwyn “Al” Cashe told his family that he would never leave one of his soldiers behind in combat.

“I told him, ‘Don’t go over there playing a hero. You learn how to duck and come home,”’ his sister, Kasinal Cashe White of Lake Butler told the Orlando Sentinel on Saturday. “He said, ‘I’m doing the job I was trained to do. I have to take care of my boys.”’

Cashe wasn’t initially hurt when a roadside bomb exploded Oct. 17 next to his Bradley Fighting Vehicle while on patrol in Samara, Iraq, family members said.

But he suffered second- and third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body when he ran back into the vehicle in an attempt to rescue other soldiers trapped inside, according to his family.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, 35, died Tuesday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio,...