U.S. Deaths in Iraq Mark Increased Presence

Her mother, Janet Henderson, had not heard of the museum but finds solace in the idea of keeping her daughter's memory alive.

"I don't think the American public knows that there are young women, 23 years of age, working in Iraq and putting their lives on the line every day," Janet Henderson said. "They need to know that women like Ashley are doing so much there. She truly believed in her work and in protecting this country."

Huff led a unit of the military police in Irbil, and much of her work involved training Iraqi police. Her biggest project was a proposal for a police academy. "Ashley pushed and pushed and pushed until she got it approved," her mother said. "That was her biggest accomplishment."

Before her deployment, she had married her college sweetheart, Brian Huff. "We had a beautiful, beautiful wedding," her mother recalled. "We planned it for six months, we planned every detail, and it was a dream wedding, and she looked like a princess."

She was looking forward to buying a house with her husband and starting a family, her mother said. One day, she hoped to work in politics or diplomatic affairs.

The last time they spoke, her daughter told her: " 'Mom, I'll be home soon, and we'll have the best Christmas,' " her mother recalled, crying softly as the holiday approached.

Pfc. Hannah McKinney

She is standing with her new husband and young son in the photograph, and her family members say she wanted nothing more than to be back with them in the United States. But she never got the chance after Sept. 6, when she was run over in the pitch-black night in an accident that has been under Army investigation.

This is the story her mother tells by phone one recent day as McKinney's 2-year-old son scampers around, trying to hang candy canes on his grandmother's Christmas tree in Redlands, Calif. "Her son will never know his mom," Barbie Heavrin said.

McKinney was a single mother when she enlisted over her parents' objections, telling them: " 'The Army would never send a young mother, a single mother, to Iraq,' " her mother said.

Before she shipped out in 2005, McKinney married her fiance in a civil ceremony. The couple was planning a wedding around the Christmas holiday at Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, Calif.

"We would have been preparing for that right now," her mother said. "We had a funeral at the church instead of a wedding."

Sgt. Jennifer Hartman

The story about 21-year-old Jennifer Hartman mentions her roots in Pennsylvania and her enthusiasm for riding snowmobiles and ATVs. She is pictured in uniform and with her younger brother and sister.