Faces of the Fallen
Pfc. Jessica Y. Sarandrea, 22, from Miami, Fla., died March 3, 2009 in Mosul, Iraq of wounds suffered when enemy mortar rounds struck her base as she was walking to her office. She was a supply specialist assigned to the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Tex. She enlisted shortly after graduating from high school and had recently reenlisted to be with her husband, whom she’d met during a prior deployment to Kuwait. She is survived by her husband, father and other family members.
Sgt. Simone A. Robinson, 21, from Dixmor, Ill., died at Brooke Army Medical Center, on March 1, 2009 from wounds received on Jan. 17 when an improvised explosive device detonated near her security post at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan. Four others were wounded in the attack. Sgt. Robinson was assigned to the 634th Brigade Support Battalion of the Illinois Army National Guard, Crestwood, Ill. She joined the Guard during her senior year in high school. She was assigned in an immaterial National Guard military occupational specialty. She is survived by her two year old daughter, parents and other relatives.
Specialist Cwislyn K. Walter, 19, from Honolulu, Hawaii, died Feb. 19, 2009 of injuries received in a vehicle accident in Kuwait City. She was assigned to headquarters and headquarters company, 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, a Hawaii National Guard unit. She had trained as a signal support systems and human resources specialist. In October Walter, originally from Chuuk in Micronesia, became a U.S. citizen. She is survived by her parents, three brothers and two sisters.
Paula Loyd, 36, from San Antonio, Tex., died Jan. 7, 2009 at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Tex., from burns received Nov. 4, 2008 in Maywand, near Kandahar, Afghanistan. She was doused with gasoline and set afire by an Afghan man as she walked in a village market. Ms. Loyd, a civilian contractor, was a member of the human terrain team. She was a graduate of Wellesley College and held a masters’ degree from Georgetown University. She served on active duty in the Army as a truck driver, and was a staff sergeant in the Army Reserves. Ms. Loyd is survived by her fiancé, parents, step-parents, brothers and sisters.
Pfc. Moneeka Mayo Vandergeld, 29, from Wyoming, Mich. died Dec. 14th, 2008 after collapsing while on a road march. An autopsy showed that she had a punctured lung that may have caused her death. She served in the Army Reserve before re-enlisting for active duty. She is survived by her husband and two children.
Pfc. Cori Feltner, 22, from Loxahatchee, Fla. died Oct. 25th, 2008 from unknown causes. She had just completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. and was preparing for service in Korea.
In addition to the casualties from Afghanistan and Iraq, several active duty women have lost their lives. Two basic training privates, Dominique Gibson-Brooks, 19, from Houston Tex. and Andreas Rosser, 21, from Raleigh, N.C., died Sept. 25th, 2008, and Oct. 25th, 2008, respectively; each from apparent natural causes.
Sgt. Kendale B. Carney, 28, from Hamlet, N.C., was found dead at her mother’s home on Aug. 16th, 2008. Carney was on leave from her unit in Iraq, where she was on her second deployment. Her death was ascribed to natural causes.
Pvt. Janelle F. King, 23, from Merced, Calif., died in Baghdad, Iraq on Aug. 14, 2008 from injuries suffered in a non-combat incident. She enlisted in 2007, and was a health care specialist with the 115th Combat Support Hospital, Fort Polk, La. She was assigned to a detainee center near the Baghdad airport. Both of her parents served in the Air Force, and she grew up at various Air Force bases. She is survived by her mother, father, stepbrother, stepsister and stepmother. She was buried at Fort Sill, Okla. with military honors.
Pfc. Jennifer L. Cole, 34, from American Canyon, Calif., died in Bayji, Iraq on Aug. 2, 2008 in a non-combat incident. Pfc. Cole joined the Army in 2007 and was assigned to the 426th Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division as a truck driver. Prior to enlisting she worked in her mother’s flower shop in Vallejo, Calif. In addition to her mother she is survived by two brothers and other family members.
