TIME gets it right for once....
Posted on 12/21/2003 6:32:02 AM PST by pittsburgh gop guy
Bomb squad expert from Carlisle died in Iraq in her husband's arms
Sunday, December 21, 2003
By Mark Scolforo, The Associated Press
CARLISLE, Pa. -- In the days since Army Staff Sgt. Kimberly A. Voelz died Dec. 14 in the arms of her soldier husband, killed by the makeshift bomb she was preparing to disarm, bits and pieces of her life have been arriving at the home of her parents.
First an e-mail she wrote one day before she died showed up in her parents' inbox on Tuesday, followed by delivery of her green military uniform, bearing the ribbons of posthumously awarded Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor medals.
And on Friday, her Christmas present to her brother and sister-in-law arrived in the mail. The set of six inscribed holiday ornaments bear comforting messages -- "Throughout the storm you do not walk alone" -- that now seem almost eerie.
"She died and she's a hero, how great is that?" said her mother, Carol A. Fahnestock. "I know she's in heaven. She's not lost to us. She's just in a different place."
Voelz, 27, and her husband, Staff Sgt. Max Voelz, 29, both explosives disposal specialists based out of Fort Knox, Ky., met during explosives training in 1997 and married two years later.
She rose quickly through the ranks and seemed to enjoy work that brought her to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, to St. Louis for a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1999, and on support detail with the Secret Service.
"She was smart, tough, and we got along good," Max Voelz said.
They both arrived in Iraq in late September, stationed at separate camps but able to stay in close contact. The days were long and the work was dangerous.
She once talked with her mother about the risks of an explosion.
"She said, 'Mom, I would never know.' And I don't think she did," Carol Fahnestock said.
The night of the blast, Max Voelz said, he knew that she and her other bomb-squad team member had been dispatched to deal with an improvised explosive device on a roadside telephone poll near the town of al-Haswah, 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Exactly what happened there is unclear -- the Army said the matter is under investigation, and Max Voelz said military confidentiality restrictions prevent him from talking about it. But there are reports that surgeons had to amputate her left leg, and she suffered a severe chest injury.
Another soldier at the scene called Max Voelz by satellite phone after Kim Voelz had been loaded onto a helicopter to be flown to a military hospital in Baghdad. Voelz knew he wanted to be by her side.
Moving around at all, much less at night, is difficult for explosives specialists because they require security escorts from other units.
"It ended up taking me seven hours to get to the hospital," Max Voelz said in an interview at the Fahnestock's home near Carlisle. "I got there shortly after she came out of surgery."
By 8 a.m. in Iraq -- midnight in Pennsylvania -- he felt he knew enough to call the Fahnestocks and tell them she was in critical but stable condition, and doctors hoped to stabilize her enough for a flight to a better-equipped hospital in Germany.
But her condition worsened and five hours later she died in his arms, becoming the 453rd soldier to die in Iraq.
Max Voelz called his wife's parents with the news, telling them she had been the best thing that had ever happened to him.
"That was our godsend, that he was there," said her father, Floyd A. Fahnestock Jr.
Max Voelz escorted his wife's remains on a C-130 flight to Kuwait, then on a 747 to Germany and to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, arriving late Wednesday.
Memorial services in her honor were held in Iraq on Thursday and at Fort Knox on Friday.
The funeral, with military honors, will be held tomorrow in Mechanicsburg. Her mother plans to give a eulogy.
"I really want to talk, because I want to tell everyone how great she was," Carol Fahnestock said.
TIME gets it right for once....
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Prayers to her survivng family members..........Donations made in her name.
Stay Safe !
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