Army Spc. Zandra T. Walker

Died August 15, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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28, of Greenville, S.C.; assigned to 4th Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Aviation Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died Aug. 15 in Taji, Iraq, when the enemy attacked using indirect fire. Also killed was Sgt. Princess C. Samuels.

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Soldiers from S.C., Maryland killed in Iraq by enemy fire

The Associated Press

GREENVILLE, S.C. — A South Carolina woman was one of two Fort Hood, Texas-based soldiers that were killed by enemy fire in Iraq last week, the Defense Department said.

Zandra T. Walker, 28, of Greenville was killed along with Sgt. Princess C. Samuels, 22, of Mitchellville, Md., on Aug. 15 in Taji, Iraq, according to a news release from the Defense Department.

Walker was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Aviation Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.

Walker fueled helicopters and was serving her second tour with the Army, one of her sisters said Monday.

“She’d be the one clapping her hands and cheering them on when they came in,” Walker’s oldest sister, Charlita Worthy, said by telephone Aug. 20 from their mother’s Greenville home.

Walker and her twin sister, Yolanda Worthy, graduated from Woodmont High School in 1997 and joined the Army during their second year at South Carolina State University, Charlita Worthy said.

Yolanda Worthy was serving in Kuwait when she learned of her sister’s death and has returned home, Charlita Worthy said.

“We were upset they decided to leave college, but it’s something that they wanted to do,” said Charlita Worthy, 31.

Walker met her husband while they were both in the military, and he has been serving as a civilian in Kuwait, Charlita Worthy said.

The last time the women were together was for the funeral of their youngest sister, who died earlier this summer from brain cancer, Worthy said.

“Out of sadness, came joy,” she said. “If we hadn’t been together then, it would have been more than a year since we saw each other.”

Tentative funeral arrangements were scheduled for Friday at Mount Hopewell Baptist Church.

“She knew what she was going into, and she went into proudly, bravely,” Worthy said. “I’m the big sister, and they’re supposed to look up to me. But at this point, I’m looking up to her.”

Walker is the fourth South Carolina woman to die in the war in Iraq, according to an Associated Press database of casualty records released by the U.S. military.

Samuels was the fourth woman from Maryland to die in the war. She was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.