| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tuba City mourns soldier killed in Iraq'Her family is very proud' of mother of two
TUBA CITY, Arizona (CNN) -- Residents of this Indian reservation recalled the life of Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, at a Mass on Sunday. "Her family is very proud," her brother Wayland told reporters. "She is our hero. We continue to believe that, we'll hold that in our hearts forever. She will not be forgotten. It gives us comfort to know she's at peace right now." After being listed as missing for 13 days, her status was changed Saturday from missing in action to killed in action. Piestewa was the first American woman and American Indian to die in combat in the war in Iraq. Piestewa was with a convoy of the 507th Maintenance Company, based at Fort Bliss, Texas, when it went astray March 23 near Nasiriya, in southern Iraq, and ambushed by Iraqi forces. She and seven others from her unit were listed as missing. While at Fort Bliss, Piestewa had been friends and roommates with Jessica Lynch, the American soldier who was rescued last week from an Iraqi hospital. Before leaving for Iraq, the single mother had told her family that her biggest concern was leaving her two young children, friends said. Piestewa had gone to Texas from Tuba City, a community of 9,000 people and a Navajo Indian reservation. She was a member of the Hopi tribe. A community waits and prays
When Piestewa, a Roman Catholic, was reported missing, her family asked the Rev. Godden Menard to open Saint Jude's Catholic Church. "We had a prayer service for her that evening at 6," he told a reporter. "Over 200 people attended and gave their condolences to the family, and, of course, we all prayed for Lori, that she would return." News that the missing soldiers, including Piestewa, were dead, came Saturday. Menard had less than a day's notice to decide what to say about the woman who told him she joined the Army because she liked the road less traveled. "I'm going to say that I too am proud of her, and I thank her for being willing to give her life for her country," he said before the Mass. "I'm also going to tell the people that they have been praying for two weeks now, and if they have been praying in the right spirit, asking God, if it's his will, that she come back, that now they will be content with the fact that she's not able to come." Hopes raised, then dashedThat was a tough order for Serita Dale, a family friend who once babysat for Piestewa. Dale said the news Wednesday that a U.S. servicewoman had been discovered alive in a hospital in Nasiriya had buoyed their hopes, but only temporarily. "We were ready to go honk our horns and thank the Lord," she said. "We waited anxiously, and it happened not to be her." Three days later, when Piestewa was identified as the first American servicewoman to die in Iraq, the community was stunned. "Everybody was crying," Dale said. "Everybody was hoping for more than what we got the news on." The difficult times will continue, she predicted. Piestewa's family still does not know when her body will be shipped back to the community in the sun-seared, red-rock mesa, and has put its plans on hold until then. At some point, the family will hold a "celebration of her life," said her brother, who asked reporters to give his family privacy until then. "We also ask you to continue to pray for all the troops, all the servicemen and women and the world leaders ... so that our children will know one day what it is to live in a world of peace and so that there will be a quick end to this conflict as well as other conflicts around the world."
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
