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Instead of getting out of the way, Cpl. Jason Ducote took the few seconds he knew he had before the explosive device would go off to toss a fellow Marine in a ditch and to yell at the others to get back.

When the device exploded in the tall grass of Afghanistan a few weeks ago, the 2003 Rockingham County High School graduate was tossed and knocked unconscious — but he and his men survived.

“His lieutenant called me ... and he told me the old saying, 'born to lead,’ he never quite understood until he met my son,” said Steve Ducote, Jason’s father.

Just 24 , the squad leader — whose 10-man team runs foot patrols in one of the most dangerous parts of the world — has served two tours in Iraq and has been in Afghanistan since January . He takes newly-enlisted men and gets them combat-ready to deploy.

Even now, he’s trying to convince doctors from his hospital bed to let him back on the battlefield.

“He left here with his men and he wants to bring them all back,” Steve Ducote said. “He wants to come back in August when his men come back. He said not a minute sooner.”

The safety of his men weighs a lot on his mind.

“He said, 'We need all the help we can get over here, we’ve all got to help each other,’ ” said Susan Kallam, his mother. “He said they’d come back if they knew I needed them.”

Those who knew Ducote back at the high school aren’t surprised at the man the likeable teenager has become.

“He was a tough kid, a smart kid, the type of guy who I think thrives in the military,” said Rockingham County High School football coach Lin Stadler , who taught and coached him. “He tried to do his job to the best of his ability.”

Ducote’s squad came upon a white sandbag, with wires and a white receiver box, in northern Marjah on May 4 , according to the Marines’ public affairs division.

“There is no way I can ever thank him enough for what he did for me,” the public affairs division quotes the Marine who Ducote threw in the ditch. “He saved my life.”

Ducote suffered a severe concussion and back injuries and is recovering at Camp Leatherneck’s Wounded Warrior Detachment . Three weeks earlier , he had come upon another device that had caused minor injuries when it went off nearby. This time, the damage is much worse, but he is able to walk.

“I still don’t know the extent of his problems but he was listed as severely wounded ... and has been downgraded” as improving, said Steve Ducote.

Their most recent conversation came Friday after rehab therapy, which had been painful.

Ducote also recently called his high school to speak to his brother. Just two hours earlier, another graduate had mentioned to longtime school secretary Diane Springs that they had heard Ducote had been injured by a land mine, but didn’t have any details.

“He said, 'Luckily, I was just thrown,’” said Springs, who answered the telephone at the high school. “He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t even tell me he had saved anyone. That says a lot about him.”

Ducote enlisted in the Marines right after high school. He has a 3-year-old daughter, Jaelynn Ducote .

“I think it was following in my footsteps to start with, but after his first enlistment, when he enlisted again he was his own man,” said Steve Ducote, who served with the Marines in Vietnam, and whose father served in the Marines in World War II .

“He found something that he was good at and he liked the discipline, the challenge. It just fit him.”

His men also trust him, Steve Ducote said. That’s why it’s important to him to see his men safely back, his father said.

The doctors “know he really wants to get back (to action) and they’re giving him a chance to prove his case,” said Steve Ducote.

“He’s a good enough Marine to make the right decision. If he thinks going back to his men is going to put them in danger he will not do it.”

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin @news-record.com