Analaura Esparza-Gutierrez

Pfc. Analaura Esparza Gutierrez

Killed in Action October 1, 2003

PFC Gutierrez was a member of Company A 4th Forward Support Battalion attached to 1-22 Infantry.

She was 21 years old and her home town was listed as Houston, Texas.

She was killed while riding in a convoy in Tikrit that was attacked
by an Improvised Explosive Device and rocket propelled greandes.

After her engagement to a fellow soldier, an excited Analaura Esparza-Gutierrez wrote to a childhood friend.

"I was about to cry when he proposed," Esparza wrote to Sharon Garcia. "He was so nervous. He could barely get the words out."

Esparza planned to get married next year after she returned from Iraq. "She never thought something bad was going to happen to her," Garcia said.

Esparza, 21, of Houston was killed in a roadside bombing Oct. 1 near the U.S. base in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.
She was the second female soldier killed in combat in Iraq.

Esparza joined the Army in 2002 so she could eventually attend college.
She arrived at Fort Hood nearly a year ago and was sent to Iraq in April for a one-year tour.

"I want people to remember my daughter for what she was -- a hero," said her father, Agustin Velazco Esparza. "I feel sad because she was killed but I feel proud also because she gave her life for this country. She was very brave."

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Analaura Esparza-Gutierrez

Soldier from Houston mourned in Iraq
Oct. 3, 2003, 7:30PM

TIKRIT, Iraq - Hundreds of U.S. troops held a memorial service today at their base in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces in Iraq
to mourn a female soldier killed by a roadside bomb.

Private Analaura Esparza-Gutierrez, 21, was killed Wednesday when the blast hit the Humvee vehicle she was driving
outside the base in Tikrit, Saddam's home town. Three other soldiers were wounded.

A U.S. Army spokeswoman said Esparza-Gutierrez was the fourth female U.S. soldier to die in combat operations since the start of the war and the first killed in action since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

Esparza-Gutierrez, from Houston, Texas, had arrived in Iraq on April 5 for a one-year tour.

Colleagues said she joined the army in 2002 and was engaged to a fellow soldier who had left Iraq on leave just a month ago.

The pair had planned to finish their one-year tour and then marry on their return to the United States
where Esparza-Gutierrez hoped to study to become a doctor.

"You were a friend to all," Sgt. Kendrick Morgan said in a poem he read at the service. "I know you made your parents proud."

Reuters News Service http://www.reuters.com/

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