Ronald Alexander recalls seeing his wife, Felecia, on the telephone, sobbing.
"What's wrong?" he said.
"Lee's dead," she said.
That's how he learned that their son, Staff Sgt. LeRoy Alexander of Dale City, had been killed in Afghanistan.
Alexander, 27, was nearly finished with his assignment in Afghanistan when he was killed. He and Capt. Charles D. Robinson, 29, of Haddon Heights, N.J., died June 3 at Forward Operating Base Orgun-E when their convoy vehicle was struck by a bomb.
Alexander and his wife, Marissa, were expecting twins -- a boy and a girl -- and he was looking forward to coming home and providing for them.
Yesterday, his wife, parents and more than 100 friends and relatives gathered to bury him at Arlington National Cemetery. Against a sea of white headstones, Marissa Alexander cleaved to her womb the flag from her husband's silver coffin. Alexander's Special Forces compatriots offered condolences to his father and mother.
A religious man, Ronald Alexander said he finds solace in knowing that his son is not lost to him forever. "Once I leave here, I know I'll see him again. And he'll see me again," he said.
Entering the service to further his education and career, Alexander was a focused and ambitious young man with a steadfast faith in God. He and Robinson were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, N.C.
"He was trying to make the most of what he was," Felecia Alexander said. "Being in the Special Forces, that shows that Lee always liked a challenge, he didn't want to be the status quo. He didn't just settle. He was just drawn to whatever was challenging."
Alexander was athletic, playing basketball and football at C.D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge. He was serious about sports and would have liked to have played professionally, family members said. After high school, his mother wanted him to attend college, but Alexander thought that the military would give him the academic and career experience to support him and Marissa, his high school sweetheart.
Alexander's younger brother Reggie, 25, played football with him at Hylton. Reggie, the larger of the two, was an offensive lineman and protected LeRoy, a running back. Off the field, however, Reggie remembers his older brother standing up for him.
