“This is what they sent us,” said Oneida Sanders, kneeling next to a heavy wooden chest in her living room. “These are Kennedy’s things.”
Sergeant. Kennedy Sanders’ belongings were sent to her parents’ home after her assassination: dog tags, ID cards, Polaroids of her family. Gold jewelry and a quarter that appeared to be stained with blood.
The items offered a glimpse into the person, the soldier and the daughter that Kennedy was and that she had hoped to become.
Kennedy was serving at a U.S. military outpost in Jordan in January when an Iranian-backed militia launched a drone attack on the base. Less than 24 hours later, two uniformed military personnel showed up on the doorstep of Oneida and Shawn Sanders in the small town of Waycross, Georgia.
Ms. Sanders wasn’t home that morning, but her husband, Shawn, was. He told her to return home immediately and then began calling family members and friends asking them to come to the house.
When Ms. Sanders arrived, one of the soldiers read a statement telling them that her 24-year-old daughter had been killed in combat.
“As soon as I entered the house and saw the two officers standing in the living room, I collapsed,” Ms. Sanders said.
The last time Ms. Sanders heard her daughter’s voice was the day before she was murdered. They had discussed the type of Girl Scout cookies Kennedy planned to send to her mother and her decision to reenlist in the Army.
Kennedy’s unit, a team of engineering specialists trained for short-term deployment and construction of infrastructure such as roads and runways, arrived in Jordan shortly after the war between Israel and Hamas began in October. The soldiers were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, a mission to combat the Islamic State that has claimed the lives of 113 U.S. soldiers since it began in August 2014, according to the Defense Department’s latest casualty report.
Sergeant. William Jerome Rivers and Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett also died in the drone strike in Jordan.
Since then, Kennedy’s parents have struggled with the pain of outliving their child. “It’s hard,” Ms. Sanders said, pausing for a moment. Her voice changed noticeably when she spoke again. “It is difficult.”
Family had always been important to Kennedy. Even as an adult, she preferred to be at home. She took care of her twin brother Kendall from a young age. She protected her younger brother Christian.
She was known in Waycross for her athletic ability, leadership, work ethic and style. She was polite but had no time for small talk. But when people got to know her, they usually found she was an extrovert, which was the life of the party, Ms. Sanders said.
During a graceful transfer in February at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Kennedy’s flag-draped transfer case was the last of three transport cases carried away by a military cargo plane. President Biden stood on the cold, wet asphalt with his hand over his heart to pay his respects as commander in chief.
Mr. and Mrs. Sanders said Mr. Biden met them privately in Dover and expressed a real understanding of their enormous pain, as he too had lost a child.
Mr. Biden posthumously promoted Kennedy from specialist to sergeant and awarded her a Purple Heart, one of the military’s most prestigious awards.
After a dignified rendition in Dover, Kennedy’s remains were returned to Waycross.
Kennedy’s parents did not see their daughter’s body until shortly before the public viewing on February 16. The family has still not received the official autopsy report from the Ministry of Defense, leaving them to speculate about the exact cause of death.
“You know, when you think about an explosion victim, your mind goes in all different directions,” Ms. Sanders said. “I didn’t know what was coming back to us in that box.” Seeing her daughter’s body in one piece “was a relief for me,” she said.
People from Waycross and surrounding areas attended the viewing for Kennedy. For hours, friends and neighbors tearfully approached Ms. Sanders to hug her, pray with her and offer their condolences.
“I don’t feel strong,” she said, referring to the day of the viewing. “I feel like I can have a breakdown at any moment, but it’s a very conscious effort to get up every day and shower, brush my teeth and do basic things.”
The next day, hundreds of people attended Kennedy’s memorial service at the local middle school. Ms. Sanders was overcome with emotion as she and her family slowly walked down the aisle to see Kennedy one last time.
As the service ended, pallbearers placed Kennedy’s flag-adorned casket in the back of a horse-drawn carriage to take it to Oakland Cemetery.
At the gravesite, military personnel folded the flag and an officer knelt to hand it to Mr. Sanders, himself a former Marine.
Kennedy and her family – her father, cousins and uncles – dedicated their lives to the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force.
The family has discovered they are not alone, as the town of Waycross has come together to preserve Kennedy’s memory.
The street where she grew up is now named after her, a sprawling mural has been painted on the side of a downtown store and scholarships have been created in Kennedy’s name. Her name was recently engraved on the Waycross Veterans Memorial.
Months after her death, a task as simple as opening the mail can bring back the harsh reality of Kennedy’s absence, as was the case in April when Ms. Sanders received a letter from the county elections office informing her that her Daughter removed from the election office would be the list of registered voters.
“Whenever you deal with it, you’re in disbelief and shock for a long time,” Ms. Sanders said. “But every now and then something happens that makes you realize that it’s really real and that she really is gone.”
Source link
2024-05-27 07:00:59
www.nytimes.com
