‘He had a warrior’s heart.’ Local mother opens up about her son who died while fighting in Ukraine

REXBURG — A 34-year-old Rexburg man who died while fighting in Ukraine is being remembered and honored for his life of service to all those around him.

Dane Partridge was married and had five children. He died Oct. 11 after being critically injured fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.

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“He had a warrior’s heart,” said his mother, Terri Hepworth, who lives in Rexburg. “He knows a life of service from his mom and his dad. He picked the best of both of us. It did cost him his life, but it saved others.”

He grew up around the military

Hepworth said her son was born in Germany. Her family was living there because her husband at the time, Dennis Partridge, was an air traffic controller in the United States Air Force. They were stationed in Zweibrücken, Germany, from 1987 to 1991. She said they went through Desert Shield and Desert Storm as well as the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“He grew up with armed guards … search dogs. That was his life. It was common for him to see men in gas masks and uniforms,” said Hepworth. “We were always on alert for attacks.”

When Partridge was 3 years old, Hepworth said her family was transferred back to the United States, and he cried for months.

“He would finally talk to me, and I said, ‘What’s going on? Why are you unhappy?’ He says, ‘I want to go home.’ I said, ‘You are home.’ He said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Well then, where’s home?'” Hepworth recalls. “‘You go on the airplane and you go back to where all the soldiers are.’ I could not get him away from that. He always wore military clothes. He played military as a kid. He and his friends had a club where they saved dogs and tried to find their owners.”

Hepworth said when she and Partridge’s father divorced, she moved to Idaho and she tried to get Partridge away from the war mentality. She tried to get him into the cowboy world, but it just didn’t work.

“He had a heart to save. He was always looking for someone that needed help. If there was a kid that had a rough life or was struggling at home, he took them under his wing,” she said.

Hepworth said Partridge’s father signed for him to go into the U.S. Army right out of high school. He served from 2006 to 2012 in different places like Colorado, Washington and Iraq.

While he wasn’t serving in the Army, Partridge was a driver for Doug Andrus Distributing, a trucking company in Bonneville County.

Then Partridge heard what was happening in Ukraine.

“He talked to me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘I’ve got to go,'” Hepworth recalls.

Partridge left in April 2022.

Partridge met a St. Anthony man

Craig Chandler of St. Anthony went to Ukraine in April to help take supplies to people. While he was there, he met Partridge at the Poland airport. They were on the same plane flying to the Ukraine border.

“He was dressed in his Army fatigues; I could tell he was American…. It was so wonderful to speak to another person that spoke English,” Chandler wrote in an email to EastIdahoNews.com.

Chandler remembers his first conversation with Partridge.

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“‘Hey, you’re an American! My name is Craig; where are you from?’ I almost fell out of my chair when he shook my hand, smiled, and said, ‘I am Dane, and I am from Rexburg, Idaho.’ We both busted out laughing!! Here we live 15 minutes away from each other, me being from St. Anthony, and we had to fly halfway around the world to meet!” Chandler wrote.

He explained it was like they had become best friends in just a few seconds.

“I asked Dane, ‘So why are you here? His answer was, ‘I knew I had the skills to help these people. I felt impressed like God wanted me to come and help. … I have made some good decisions and bad decisions in my life, some I am not proud of. … I feel it’s time I can be a better man! I know I can help these people!!” Chandler wrote.

Chandler knew there was something special about Partridge and that he was really there to help the people in Ukraine.

His service in Ukraine

When Partridge came to Ukraine, he joined the international legion of foreign fighters, a group of volunteers from countries around the world fighting alongside Ukrainians. Partridge was involved with an organization called LEGS, Logistical Emergencies Getting Solved, helping to organize rescues of injured civilians in Ukraine.

Before Partridge was critically injured, he was hurt but then healed. He did not want to come home because he wasn’t finished with what he had come out to do.

“He did get wounded. He got his foot caught on a trip wire, and he got shrapnel fragments from the grenade that went off. Sure enough, once he was healed, he went right back out,” said Hepworth.

Hepworth said she and her son would message each other while he was in Ukraine, but just a few weeks ago, he out of the blue called her.

“He seemed so happy. He video-chatted me. He was driving a pickup to go and get some people, and he was smiling. He was peaceful. He told me he was going to be on the front lines,” Hepworth remembers. “He said, ‘Mom, I got to go.’ Then, that was it.”

She told him she loved him.

The day he was wounded

On Oct. 3, Partridge was injured. Hepworth remembers she was told on Facebook messenger by a church member in Ukraine, “Dane has been wounded.”

RELATED | Rexburg man killed while fighting in Ukraine

“At first, we thought the injuries were not bad, but then I had a feeling they were,” she said.

Jenny Corry, Partridge’s older sister, told EastIdahoNews.com that her brother and other men he was with were clearing trenches when they were ambushed by two Russian vehicles. The men were caught in a firefight. Partridge got shrapnel in his brain and suffered from a broken neck and an injured arm. His comrades carried him out.

Corry said a pickup that was taken to the hospital with Partridge in it was still under attack and was damaged.

She and her mother would like to raise money to send to Ukraine so the people who helped Partridge can buy a new pickup.

Corry said Partridge was in a coma for eight days at Zaporizhzhia Regional Medical Center and passed away while he was on life support.

Hepworth told EastIdahoNews.com they had plans to take him off life support due to the severity of his injuries but when it came down to it, nobody had to make the call.

“He quietly slipped away,” Hepworth said. “The Ukrainians loved him so much.”

Remembering Dane Partridge

Corry said she had last talked to her brother five days before he was critically injured on Sept. 28.

“He asked about some of his kids and the happenings of what was going on at home,” Corry recalls.

She said after learning about her brother’s death, it has helped to be able to share his memory and pay tribute to him. She said Partridge was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The No. 1 thing that he wanted to do was serve his God and stay strong in his faith. He wanted to make sure he honored all of his spiritual convictions and live his life as a representative of his faith. He just wanted to serve and make a legacy of service,” she said.

Corry said her brother’s body is still in Ukraine, and she and her family are working to get him back to Idaho. There are plans for Partridge to be buried at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery in Blackfoot.

Hepworth is proud of her son and all that he has accomplished.

“He died in the service of other people. What greater comfort can I have than that? I have a son who died serving others and found love and joy serving others,” she said.

She has moments where she cries thinking about him. Hepworth misses her son and is grieving but knows that he has found his purpose in life. She hopes that others can remember her son and be reminded of him.

“His call sign was Bird because his last name was Partridge. So when you see some birds, think of my son,” Hepworth said tearfully.