News 8 Austin -- The small town of Elgin is mourning the loss of one their own.

"I lost a hero. To me Josh was a hero," Elgin City Councilman, Chris Cannon, said.

Captain Joshua Meadows won't be coming back to the town he grew up in.

The 30-year old died Saturday half way across the globe.

According to the Department of Defense, he died supporting combat operations in Afghanistan. 

"As far as I was concerned there were no flaws in that boy," Cannon said.

Meadows was a 1997 graduate of Elgin High School. He wasted no time following in the footsteps of his late father by joining the Marines.

"There was no question about it, he was going to be a Marine the rest of his life," Cannon said. 

His mother still calls a ranch on the outskirts of town, home.

"Lot of good memories out here," Cannon said standing outside the gates to the ranch.

Memories Cannon, a friend and now an Elgin City Council member will hold onto even tighten now that Josh is gone.

"His dad made him live out in a pasture in a tent for a month. He stayed out there for a whole month. I remember going out there and taking him some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches," Cannon said with a smile on his face.

Another close family friend, Kay Silkerson, is also mourning the loss of Meadows.

"Anytime something like this happens, I think it brings awareness to the community about how short life can be and don't waste any of it," Silkerson said.

When she first heard of Meadows' death she thought about something his late father, Robert Meadows used to do.

"Robert had a habit of taking his knuckle and greeting the kids, kind of doing a little knock on the head. I could just see him greeting Josh in heaven with that little head knock and saying, glad you're here son," Silkerson said.

He was a son, husband, brother, marine, soon to be father, and to many in Elgin, even those who didn't know him, he was a hero.

Meadows is survived by his wife and their yet to be born child. His sister, mother and wife are in Delaware waiting for their soldier to return home one last time.

==Another news story==

Staff report -- A California-based Marine was killed Saturday in Afghanistan’s Farah province, the Pentagon reported Wednesday.

Capt. Joshua S. Meadows, 30, of Bastrop, Texas, died from wounds sustained during a firefight, friends told the Elgin Courier, his hometown newspaper. A UH-1N Huey pilot, he was assigned to 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, Marine Corps Forces-Special Operations Command, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

He had joined MarSOC in May, Marine officials said in a statement.

Meadows enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1996, and he served as a reservist while studying at Texas Tech University, the Courier reported. He and his wife were expecting the birth of their first child.

His military awards and decorations included the Purple Heart, Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal and Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal, officials said.