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By RAELYNN RICARTE

News staff writer

Army Chaplain (Capt.) Dale Goetz, 43, died Monday in a roadside bomb blast that also killed four other soldiers in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Capt. Goetz was a 1986 graduate of Horizon Christian School in Hood River, where he spent most of his childhood. His mother, Hope Goetz, who now lives in Elizabeth, Colo., said the family was told by an Army Casualty Assistance Officer that Capt. Goetz, and the other soldiers, died after getting out of his vehicle to assist the occupants of another Humvee that had been injured by the detonation of the first IED (Improvised Explosive Device). Hope is flying to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware with a daughter to be present for the military ceremony that will take place when Capt. Goetz' remains arrive back in the states. His wife, Christina, decided to remain at home in Colorado Springs to avoid further traumatizing the couple's three children, Landon, 10, Caleb, 8, and Joel, 1 year. Capt. Goetz deployed to Afghanistan on Aug. 4 of 2010 and had a prior deployment to Iraq in 2004-05. A funeral service will be held in Colorado Springs and his body will be laid to rest at Fort Logan, where his father is buried.