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Army Sgt. Daniel J. Londono
Died March 13, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
22, of Boston; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 504th Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; killed March 13 when an improvised explosive device struck his military vehicle in Baghdad. Also killed were Staff Sgt. Clint D. Ferrin and Pfc. Joel K. Brattain.
Boston man dies in Iraq explosion
By Helena Payne
Associated Press
BOSTON — A Boston man who joined the Army to help pay for college for his sister and himself was among three soldiers killed in an explosion in Iraq last week.
Sgt. Daniel J. Londono, 22, was killed March 13, less than three weeks before his April 1 birthday and two months before he was going to complete his military service, relatives said.
Londono was in a military vehicle in Baghdad with Staff Sgt. Clint D. Ferrin, 31, of Picayune, Miss., and Pfc. Joel K. Brattain, 21, of Santa Anna, Calif, when an improvised explosive device struck it, the Department of Defense said March 16.
All three soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 504th Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, N.C. Ferrin grew up in Ogden, Utah and moved to Mississippi for his senior year of high school before joining the Army.
Londono joined the Army after graduating from Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree in 2000. His aunt Mirka Kozikowski said Tuesday that Londono had always expressed an interest in the Army as a child, but he joined primarily to help his mother and sister financially.
“He wanted to protect the country but also to make a better life for himself,” Kozikowski said. “The only way he could go to college was to go to the Army.”
Londono’s 18-year-old sister, Diana, of the Dorchester section of Boston, said her brother was protective but she recalled with some sadness how committed he was to helping her.
“When he came back home once he told me that he went to the Army for me so that my mom could pay for college for me,” she said.
She also said her brother ran track in school and listened to all types of music.
The family last saw Londono during the Christmas holiday and his mother had spoken to him a week ago, Kozikowski said.