Army Spc. Jessica Y. Sarandrea

Died March 3, 2009 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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22, of Miami, Fla.; assigned to the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died March 3 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked her forward operating base with mortar fire.

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Husband recalls soldier killed in mortar attack

Spc. Jessica Y. Sarandrea and her husband met in Kuwait during a prior deployment. Alejandro “Alex” Sarandrea told the young woman she looked familiar.

She said she didn’t recognize him. But when the two met again, “We started talking. It turned out we were both from Miami, from almost the same region,” Sarandrea said.

“We ended up getting married out there,” he said.

Sarandrea, 22, of Miami, died March 3 in Mosul of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked her forward operating base with mortar fire. She was assigned to Fort Hood.

Sarandrea, who graduated from Coral Gables High School, was stationed in Mosul, where she worked as a supply specialist performing logistical support for her battalion, said her husband.

She was walking from her office, perhaps to get her gear, when she was hit by shrapnel from incoming mortar, her husband said.

The shrapnel pierced her liver and severed one of her main arteries, said Sarandrea.

“I know what a wonderful person she was,” Sarandrea said. “I will always carry her memory in my heart.”