Soldier, 22, Killed in Mortar Attack

Spec. Jessica Sarandrea was just 22 but had already spent three and a half years in the Army when her life was cut short in March. She arrived at her final resting place yesterday.

Sarandrea, of Miami, died March 3 in Mosul, Iraq, when enemy forces attacked her forward operating base with mortar fire, the Defense Department reported.

She was honored at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday in an intimate service. The chaplain, Maj. Stanton Trotter, spoke to mourners gathered on the northernmost side of the cemetery's Section 60, where many soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.

Motioning to the sea of white tombstones to the west and south of the mourners, Trotter spoke of the "hallowed and sacred ground" of the cemetery. Talking about the service and sacrifice that warrants burial at Arlington, his voice rang out above the chirping birds, passing cars and planes going to and from nearby Reagan National Airport.

"She was doing her duty," Trotter said. "She was doing the job she chose to do."

After speaking, Trotter removed one of his white gloves to shake the hands of gathered family, which included Sarandrea's mother, Xiomara Mansilla, her father, Carlos Castillo, and her stepparents. Her brother, Josue Castillo, a Navy corpsman, carried her cremated remains to the grave site.

Her husband, Alejandro "Alex" Sarandrea, is deployed in Iraq, so he was not at Arlington yesterday. He had flown back with her remains from Iraq and returned there after an earlier memorial service in South Florida, according to his father.

The Florida service included military honors, and flags were presented to the family, so yesterday's service did not include the traditional honors such as a firing party and a bugler playing taps.

Sarandrea was the 550th service member killed in Iraq or Afghanistan to be buried at Arlington.

She joined the military in August 2005 as a unit supply specialist and deployed to Iraq in December. She was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood, Tex.

Fort Hood area media outlets report that she was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart. Her other honors include the Army Commendation Medal and Army Good Conduct Medal.

In March, her husband told the Miami Herald that the two had met in Kuwait during a prior deployment. They were the same age and found out they were both from Miami. He told the paper that she was walking from her office when she was hit by shrapnel from incoming mortar fire.

"I know what a wonderful person she was," he said in March. "I will always carry her memory in my heart."

Her father-in-law, also named Alejandro Sarandrea, spoke highly of her last week.

"She was very, very well-liked, very intelligent," he said by telephone from Florida. "We were proud that they were together."