BANGOR (AP) – A Rockland man who earned a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq says it’s hard to be at home in Maine while his friends are still overseas.

“It’s nice coming home early, but not under these particular circumstances,” said Sgt. David Miller.

Miller, 33, was awarded the Purple Heart last weekend for injuries he suffered when his convoy was ambushed.

An Army Reservist, Miller was in the passenger seat of a fuel truck that was traveling between Baghdad to Fallujah. When an expected escort unit did not show up on April 11, the convoy left without it.

“They needed fuel we had really bad, and the roads were OK,” Miller said. “They told us to go ahead and roll.”

The convoy was attacked by more than 200 Iraqi insurgents.

“We heard a couple of mortars hit off in the distance,” he said. “The next thing you know we started taking fire from the left.”

Miller was shot in the arm during the 45-minute fire fight. His truck stopped moving and he jumped out to find a medic. Then he noticed three men coming out of bushes to his right.

“I opened up on the three guys coming out of the bushes,” he said.

He says he doesn’t remember the three American soldiers who had to convince him to put down his gun so his wound could be treated.

Military service is a tradition in Miller’s family.

“There’s been someone in my family in the military as far back as the Civil War,” he said. “It’s something that my father had done, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps.”

AP-ES-06-14-04 1404EDT