Waldorf Mother Is Furious At Soldier Daughter's Death

Many 'Don't Believe in This Mission,' She Says

Army Sgt. Princess C. Samuels was a girly girl.

She was a cheerleader in high school. She had a white poodle named Skylar whose ears and tail she had dyed pink. She had her Mustang custom painted pink and purple to match a Barbie car she owned as a child. She loved fashion, especially pink clothes.

Skylar and some of those pink clothes will be on hand next week when Samuels, 22, one of the latest casualties of the war in Iraq, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

A graduate of Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale, where she was in ROTC, Samuels, of Mitchellville, was killed by enemy fire Wednesday in Taji, Iraq. She was stationed there as an intelligence officer with Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, according to a Defense Department statement.

"I am very upset that this has happened," Samuels's distraught mother, Anika Lawal of Waldorf, said yesterday. "I want to know why I'm planning a funeral while George Bush is planning a wedding."

Lawal was among a number of relatives and friends mourning the loss of Samuels, who died along with another female soldier, Zandra T. Walker, 28, of Greenville, S.C., the release said. Walker was with the 4th Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Aviation Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.

"She was beautiful," Lawal said of her daughter. "She loved her clothes and makeup. She wanted to be a model, but I was against it. I told her to focus on her brains and to be educated."

Instead of heading to college after high school, Samuels enlisted in the Army. She told her mother she wasn't ready for college and wanted to travel.

At her home in Waldorf yesterday, Lawal made plans to bury her daughter with full military honors. The funeral is scheduled for Aug. 31. As she looked at pictures of Samuels, Lawal thought back to the delight in her daughter's voice as they had made plans to get matching tattoos and celebrate Lawal's 80-pound weight loss after gastric bypass surgery.

Lawal recalled her surprise when she learned that her daughter had married Victor Jones, a former soldier who lives in Bowie. She said her daughter was terrified to be in Iraq and planned to leave the military as soon as she could. Lawal also said her daughter was not cut out to be a soldier and tried to hide her fear during their telephone calls, including their last one, on Aug. 6, when Samuels called to wish her mother a happy birthday.

"She was just like the other soldiers," Lawal said. "They can't come out and say it because they will get in trouble, but many of them don't believe in this mission. She didn't."

Lawal said her daughter had been ill for months and had been prescribed a medicine to treat depression and stimulate her appetite.