Army Pfc. Daniel Zizumbo

Died February 27, 2007 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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27, of Chicago; assigned to 1st Transportation Movement Control Agency, 21st Theater Support Command, Kaiserslautern, Germany; died Feb. 27 in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device.

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Chicago soldier killed by explosive in Afghanistan

The Associated Press

CHICAGO — A 27-year-old soldier from Chicago has been killed by an explosive in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced Thursday.

Army Pfc. Daniel Zizumbo died Tuesday in Bagram, which is about an hour north of Kabul and serves as the main U.S. air base in Afghanistan.

Zizumbo had been assigned to the 1st Transportation Movement Control Agency, 21st Theater Support Command, in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

A telephone listing for a Daniel Zizumbo in Chicago did not belong to the soldier.

Julia Zizumbo, his mother, said it was her son’s second time in the military. After graduating from Juarez High School, he joined the Marines at age 17.

For the next few years, he applied for jobs in Chicago and briefly attended college before enlisting in the Army.

Julia Zizumbo said she didn’t agree with her son’s decision.

“He didn’t need to go to the Army,” she told the Chicago Tribune. “I always provided for him and his siblings. I always wanted something better for my children.”

His death came the same day two Americans were killed in a suicide attack near the Bagram air base while Vice President Dick Cheney was meeting with officials inside. The DoD did not say whether Zizumbo was one of those two Americans. Twenty-one other people also were killed.

As of Thursday, at least 307 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.