Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

38, of Hollywood, Fla.

assigned to Division Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; killed Oct. 11 when two rockets hit her camp in Baghdad. Also killed was Pfc. Anthony W. Monroe.

A native of Jamaica, the slain soldier came to Florida when she was 14, her husband said. She lived in Miami, then in nearby Hollywood, and she nourished two dreams: One was to become a citizen of the United States, the other was to serve in the military.

Her husband said a medical condition could have kept her out of Baghdad, but she had obtained her citizenship last year and refused to turn her back on her fellow soldiers or her country.

“I’m not going to punk out like some of these people,” her husband recalled her saying. She was referring to reports of soldiers failing drug tests or coming up with other reasons to avoid being sent overseas. “I’m going to serve my country, to protect my country.”

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