TROY – Army Spc. Matthew Pennington, who lost his leg while serving in Iraq, is coming home.

Pennington, 23, was traveling April 29 in a convoy with the 82nd Airborne Division near Tikrit, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.

He lost his left leg below the knee, and his right leg has severe tissue damage. He has been receiving outpatient therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Now, he is expected home in Waldo County early next week.

“He’s our family hero,” his mother, Sharon Pennington, said in a recent interview. “If he wasn’t calm, cool and collected when he was hit, we wouldn’t be able to talk to him right now. He’ll be coming home to Maine, which is good.”

Matthew Pennington moved with his family from Texas to Maine in 1993. He attended elementary school in Winterport and Hampden Academy. He and his wife of three years, Marjorie, who is from Dexter, will arrive at their rented home in Troy.

The couple have been staying at Walter Reed since Pennington was wounded.

Sharon Pennington said it was fortunate that her son received medical training because he initially had to treat his own wounds and “tie off” his leg himself. Desert sand infected the wounds, and he had to battle a fungus and a rash for months.

His mother spent most of May at the hospital with her son and his wife.

“There were hundreds of wounded there, and it must be that way at the other Army hospitals,” she said. “He was very well cared for. We took him out one night to watch them lower the flag. Just the ceremony of the flag touched all of us. We felt we’d be all right. Just being in America is a blessing. I wouldn’t say I’m overly patriotic, but the colors and stuff just make me tear up.”

Spc. Pennington joined the Army when he was 17 and served tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq before returning to Iraq with the 82nd.

“He enjoyed the Army and was going to make a career out of it,” his mother said. “We never thought anything would happen to Matthew. We just weren’t thinking that anything would happen.”

Sharon Pennington said her daughter-in-law would always let her know when Matthew was heading out on a mission and that he would always call when he returned.

“This time we got a horrible phone call before he could call. It’s just the most horrendous feeling,” she said. “They didn’t think he would make it.”

Pennington said the first thing she did after hearing the news was reach for the phone and call the Catholic church in nearby Hampden. It happened that priests from throughout New England were attending a retreat, and they spread Matthew Pennington’s name far and wide to their parishioners.

“There were literally thousands of people praying for Matthew. That helped save his life as well,” she said.

Pennington said she was at her son’s side when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his wife stopped to visit and to thank him for his service. On Monday, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, welcomed Matthew and Marjorie to Capitol Hill and treated them to lunch in the Senate Dining Room.

“I am truly amazed at the strength and courage that Specialist Pennington shows during this incredibly difficult time in his young life,” Collins said. “It was a pleasure to meet and talk with him and his wife today.”

Collins’ office has been working with the family to prepare for his return. The office also is helping find the resources needed to build a ramp at his rented home. Members of the Rockland Veterans of Foreign Wars have agreed to lead the effort to buy materials and build a portable ramp in anticipation of his arrival.

“We could see our blessings all around us,” Sharon Pennington recalled of her stay at Walter Reed. “When you see someone crippled up in a wheelchair from a bomb, or somebody who has lost both legs, we know how blessed we were. I’m just so glad he’s well.”