Name: Army Spc. Katrina L. Bell-Johnson Age: 32 From: Orangeburg, S.C. Assigned to the 418th Transportation Company, 180th Transportation Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas Incident: Army Spc. Katrina L. Bell-Johnson was killed Feb. 16 in a vehicle accident in Baqubah, Iraq. Died:
February
16, 2005 Orangeburg native dies in Iraq
Associated Press
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — An Orangeburg woman serving in Iraq has died after the truck she was riding in overturned, family members said.
Katrina Johnson, 32, died Wednesday in Baghdad while riding in a convoy delivering supplies, her sister Nicole Johnson said.
“We’re not sure if there was a mine or what,” Nicole Johnson said. “We’re going to try to find out the circumstances.”
Katrina Johnson was assigned to H Platoon, 418th Transportation, based out of Killeen, Texas. She was an expert markswoman and was seeking promotion to sergeant, her sister said.
Johnson married in Texas and had given birth to a baby girl, Gabrielle Dana Bell, about a year ago, her sister said.
Two months after giving birth, she was sent to Iraq. Johnson came back to the U.S. for six months before returning to Iraq late last year, her sister said.
Prayers & Condolences For: Katrina L. Bell-Johnson BY acidburnny on Jun 24, 2005
Freedom Isn't Free
I watched the flag pass by one day. It fluttered in the breeze A young soldier saluted it, and then He stood at ease. I looked at him in uniform So young, so tall, so proud With hair cut square and eyes alert He'd stand out in any crowd. I thought how many men like him Had fallen through the years. How many died on foreign soil? How many mothers' tears? How many Pilots' planes shot down? How many foxholes were soldiers' graves? No Freedom isn't free
I heard the sound of taps one night, When everything was still. I listened to the bugler play And felt a sudden chill. I wondered just how many times That taps had meant "Amen" When a flag had draped a coffin of a brother or a friend. I thought of all the children, Of the mothers and the wives, Of fathers, sons and husbands With interrupted lives. I thought about a graveyard at the bottom of the sea Of unmarked graves in Arlington..... No -- Freedom isn't free!!