An attack in Mosul killed the 19-year-old soldier on Dec. 29, just two days before his first wedding anniversary. Sanchez went to Iraq in October as part of a Stryker unit from Fort Lewis. He was manning an observation outpost when insurgents launched a two-stage attack. Suicide bombers first drove a truck into the Stryker outpost and detonated 1,500 pounds of explosives. As a patrol responded with aid, a second bomber blew up an explosives-filled car. Of 15 injured soldiers, Sanchez was among nine who were rushed to treatment at an Army hospital at Mosul Airfield. He died the same day. “When he came back, we wanted to buy a house, and last year we didn’t have a honeymoon, so we were going to go on a cruise,” Tiffany Sanchez, also 19, told The Modesto Bee newspaper. “We thought probably the Bahamas or Hawaii, somewhere beachy. It really didn’t matter, as long as we had a good time and we were together.” Sanchez entered active duty in October 2003, Devlin said. He arrived at Fort Lewis on Feb. 15, 2004, after undergoing basic training and advanced individual training at Fort Benning, Ga. He was assigned to Iraq as part of 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team). Family members said he joined the Army because he wanted to get a good job and provide for his family. “His hopes and dreams were always to take care of his brothers and of getting his things together,” said a cousin, 30-year-old Stella Padilla. “A home for his father. A home for his brother.”
An attack in Mosul killed the 19-year-old soldier on Dec. 29, just two days before his first wedding anniversary. Sanchez went to Iraq in October as part of a Stryker unit from Fort Lewis. He was manning an observation outpost when insurgents launched a two-stage attack. Suicide bombers first drove a truck into the Stryker outpost and detonated 1,500 pounds of explosives. As a patrol responded with aid, a second bomber blew up an explosives-filled car. Of 15 injured soldiers, Sanchez was among nine who were rushed to treatment at an Army hospital at Mosul Airfield. He died the same day. “When he came back, we wanted to buy a house, and last year we didn’t have a honeymoon, so we were going to go on a cruise,” Tiffany Sanchez, also 19, told The Modesto Bee newspaper. “We thought probably the Bahamas or Hawaii, somewhere beachy. It really didn’t matter, as long as we had a good time and we were together.” Sanchez entered active duty in October 2003, Devlin said. He arrived at Fort Lewis on Feb. 15, 2004, after undergoing basic training and advanced individual training at Fort Benning, Ga. He was assigned to Iraq as part of 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team). Family members said he joined the Army because he wanted to get a good job and provide for his family. “His hopes and dreams were always to take care of his brothers and of getting his things together,” said a cousin, 30-year-old Stella Padilla. “A home for his father. A home for his brother.”
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