Army Pfc. Amy R. Sinkler

Died January 20, 2011 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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23, of Chadbourn, N.C., assigned to the 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Fort Richardson, Alaska; died Jan. 20 in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked her unit with a rocket-propelled grenade.

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Joined Army to leave small NC hometown

The Associated Press

Amy Sinkler’s reason for joining the military was simple: She wanted to get out of the little town where she grew up and spent her life, and see the world.

“Basically, we were in our hometown forever,” her best friend, Brittany Rahman, told The Fayetteville Observer. “We grew up there, didn’t travel much, so we wanted to get away and see different stuff.”

Sinkler graduated from West Columbus High School in Chadbourn, N.C., in 2006. Rahman graduated a year earlier. Both wound up joining the military.

Sinkler, 23, was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack Jan. 20 in Baghlan province, Afghanistan. She was assigned to Fort Richardson, Alaska. She was a vehicle driver with a group at the post known as the “Rough Riders.”

Rahman said her friend had settled in well at the post, buying herself a car and marrying her high school boyfriend, Doug Sinkler.

The soldier was a strong-minded person and wasn’t one to hold back what she was feeling, Rahman said.

“That’s not Amy,” she said. “She’s going to tell you exactly how she’s feeling.”