- Home
- NATO Kosovo Force
- Operation Allies Refuge
- Operation Enduring Freedom
- Operation Freedom’s Sentinel
- Operation Inherent Resolve
- Operation Iraqi Freedom
- Operation New Dawn
- Operation Octave Shield
- Operation Odyssey Lightning
- Operation Spartan Shield
- Task Force Sinai
- U.S. Africa Command Operations
- U.S. Central Command operations
- The People Behind The Sacrifice
Army Spc. Manuel Lopez III
Died April 12, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
20, of Cape Coral, Fla.; assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.; killed April 12 when his Humvee was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in Baghdad.
Cape Coral soldier killed in Iraq
Associated Press
FORT MYERS, Fla. — A Cape Coral soldier serving in Iraq talked by phone with his wife about shots for their 4-month-old daughter 16 hours before the Army notified her of his death.
Spc. Manuel Lopez III, 20, was killed Tuesday when a rocket-propelled grenade hit his Humvee while he was on street patrol in Baghdad, the Pentagon said Thursday. He was serving with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Stewart, Ga.
Lopez worked as a signal support systems specialist in communications, and his primary assignment was repairing and maintaining communication systems, his wife, Kira, told The News-Press of Fort Myers for Friday editions.
“He was supposed to be the guy behind the front lines keeping everything going,” she said. “He was supposed to be well-protected. That’s why it hit me so hard.”
Kira Lopez got word of the attack from friends before receiving a call from the Army asking to verify her address.
She said she felt her heart sink.
“I knew then something was wrong,” she said. “I just knew it. I kept checking the window all day. I didn’t want to face it.”
A soldier arrived at her workplace later to deliver the news.
Kira Lopez said she and her husband were destined to be together from the moment they met at age 3 in New York.
“We were even born in the same hospital,” Kira Lopez said. “Our fathers were really good friends and we used to play together.”
They drifted apart in middle school but rekindled their friendship in high school.
“All our lives we had the same goals of wanting to have a family and a home,” Kira Lopez said. “Now I’ve lost my very best friend. I will never find that again. Most people never get to experience what I got to with Manny, knowing that you were soul mates.”
Manuel Lopez joined the Army in March 2003, got married Aug. 22, 2003, and left for basic training that September. He left for Iraq in January.