Soldier killed in drone strike had local ties | Free News
Breonna Moffett would “always just light up a room when she walked in,” her mother said. “She was a very smart, kind, funny person. She just loved life and lived each day to the fullest.”
Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, was one of three U.S. Army Reservists to be killed in a drone strike on a housing unit in Jordan on Sunday. She was the oldest of four children of Percell and Francine Moffett, Bay Springs natives who were living in Savannah, Ga.
They were getting ready for Church on Sunday when two uniformed men showed up at their door. Francine Moffett, whose footsteps Breonna followed into military service, immediately knew what had happened.
“They told me that my baby had gone,” she told a reporter at Savannah TV station WSAV. “They were very respectful, but when you hear it, it just takes your soul, it just takes your heart.”
Breonna, who had turned 23 a week earlier, was the drum major at Windsor Forest High School and ROTC participant. She loved both of those activities and knew from an early age she wanted to serve her country, her mother said.
“She loved her family and she was a protector of her siblings,” said Mrs. Moffett, who was 17 when she joined the military. She recalled when Breonna came to her and said she wanted to join, too. “I said, ‘If that’s your decision, I am behind you 100 percent because I know at that age, I joined the military,’” her mother said.
Her parents and other loved ones — including grandparents John Rand and Leon Moffett and Kathy Moffett, all of whom still live in Bay Springs — said that they found comfort in knowing Breonna lived a life of service, faith and love.
Mrs. Moffett said they spoke with President Joe Biden on Tuesday morning, and he was “compassionate and reassuring.”
Spc. Breonna Moffett was promoted to the rank of sergeant posthumously by the U.S. Army Reserve Center. She and the others who were killed — Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Ga. and Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Ga. — were all assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade of Fort Moore, Ga. They were near the Syrian border when the deadly attack occurred.
At least 40 more service members were injured in the attack at a support base known as “Tower 22” that came months after similar attacks on bases that house U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq. The attacks are believed to be a response to U.S. strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have targeted merchant ships in what they claim to be an operation against Israel and its war in Gaza, according to reports.
Biden vowed that the U.S. would respond.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7rbHAnZyrZZOWua16wqikaKaVrMBwstGenJimlazAcL%2FOpZuinaJiuKq4y56bZqGeYrGzu82eZKysop64pnnHmptmpJ%2BYrq1506KcrGeRp8Gqr8uelmltkpawp67EZpppb2lifnKxxGZwnWhlYoZ4rcBrbXJtYGeCdHrHraSl