BENNINGTON, Vt. (AP) – An Army Ranger who was wounded in Iraq in April is recovering quicker than doctors expected, his mother said this week.

Cpl. Ricky Greene, 22, was recently moved from Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington to a facility in Richmond, Va. His mother Wendy Greene-Baker said he will probably return home in several weeks.

“I love the Army. I want to be a Ranger still. I’m physically up for it now,” Greene told the Bennington Banner from his hospital room Monday.

“I’m doing good. Most importantly I’m still alive,” said Greene. “I died twice over there (in Iraq). My body stopped. I had no heartbeat.”

Greene was wounded when the gun turret of a U.S. tank swung around and hit him in the head.

He has been walking and talking while continuing to receive physical therapy, said Greene-Baker. He is expected to have a follow-up at Walter Reed soon, and will have to return there in the future for several more surgeries, she said.

“He still has a long recovery,” she said, but he will be able to live at home and receive outpatient care.

She hopes to have Ricky’s homecoming coincide with his birthday on June 29.

Greene said the thing he’s looking forward to the most about his return home is marrying his girlfriend, Mary Ross, next June. Ross is from Seattle and the two met in Washington state, he said.

Ross will accompany him home to Bennington, but Greene doesn’t have plans to stick around longer than a few months.

“I want to continue being a Ranger,” he said.

Hospital life is depressing, said Greene.

“I just can’t wait to get out of here and come home to Vermont and see all my friends,” he said.

AP-ES-06-22-04 2012EDT