“This is what they sent us,” Oneida Sanders mentioned, kneeling beside a weighty picket chest in her front room. “These are Kennedy’s things.”
Sgt. Kennedy Sanders’s assets have been shipped house to her folks later she used to be killed: Canine tags, id playing cards, Polaroids of her community. Gold jewellery and 1 / 4 that gave the look to be stained with blood.
The pieces introduced a glimpse into the individual, soldier and daughter that Kennedy used to be and who she had was hoping to turn into.
Kennedy used to be serving on a U.S. army outpost in Jordan in January when an Iran-backed defense force introduced a drone assault at the bottom. Lower than 24 hours then, two uniformed carrier individuals confirmed up at the doorstep of Oneida and Shawn Sanders within the petite the town of Waycross, Ga.
Ms. Sanders wasn’t house that morning, however her husband, Shawn, used to be. He advised her to go back house immediately and nearest started calling community individuals and pals, asking them to return to the home.
When Ms. Sanders arrived, one of the most squaddies learn a remark informing them that their 24-year-old daughter have been killed in motion.
“As soon as I got into the house and saw the two officers standing in the living room, I collapsed,” Ms. Sanders mentioned.
The ultimate day Ms. Sanders heard her daughter’s expression used to be the month sooner than she used to be killed. They’d mentioned the kind of Lady Scout cookies Kennedy sought after her mom to ship and her resolution to re-enlist within the Military.
Kennedy’s unit, a group of engineering experts skilled to deploy on decrease understand and develop infrastructure like roads and airstrips, had arrived in Jordan in a while later the battle between Israel and Hamas started in October. The warriors have been supporting Operation Inherent Unravel, a challenge to fight the Islamic Surrounding, which has claimed the lives of 113 U.S. carrier individuals since it all started in August 2014, consistent with the original Protection Section casualty record.
Sgt. William Jerome Rivers and Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett have been additionally killed within the drone collision in Jordan.
Kennedy’s folks have grappled with the ache of outliving their kid ever since. “It’s weighty,” Ms. Sanders said, pausing briefly, her voice notably changed when she spoke again. “It’s heavy.”
Family had always been important to Kennedy. Even as an adult she preferred being home. From a young age, she looked after her twin brother, Kendall. She was protective of her younger brother, Christian.
She was known in Waycross for her athletic ability, leadership, work ethic and style. She was polite but didn’t have time for small talk. But when people got to know her they usually found she was an extrovert, the life of the party, Ms. Sanders said.
During a dignified transfer in February at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Kennedy’s flag-draped transfer case was the last of the three carried off a military cargo plane. President Biden stood, hand over heart, on the cold, wet tarmac to pay his respects as the commander in chief.
Mr. and Ms. Sanders said that Mr. Biden met with them privately at Dover and expressed a genuine understanding of their tremendous 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 distinguished decorations.
After the dignified transfer at Dover, Kennedy’s remains were returned to Waycross.
Kennedy’s parents did not see their daughter’s body until just before the public viewing on Feb. 16. The family still has not received the official autopsy report from the Defense Department, leaving them to speculate about the precise cause of her death.
“You know, if you think about an explosion victim, your mind goes all types of 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 the surrounding area filed into the viewing for Kennedy. For hours, friends and neighbors approached Ms. Sanders in tears 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, at any moment, I can have a breakdown, at any second, but it is a very deliberate and conscious effort just to get up every day and shower, brush my teeth, do basic things.”
The next day hundreds of people attended Kennedy’s funeral service at the local middle school. Ms. Sanders was overwhelmed with emotion as she and her family slowly made their way down the aisle to see Kennedy one final time.
As the service ended, pallbearers placed Kennedy’s flag-draped casket in the back of a horse-drawn carriage to be taken to Oakland Cemetery.
At graveside, service members 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 found that it is not alone, as the city of Waycross has come together to preserve Kennedy’s memory.
The street she grew up on is now named after her, a sprawling mural has been painted on the side of a business downtown, and scholarships in Kennedy’s name have been created. Her name was recently engraved on the Waycross Veterans Memorial.
Months after her death, a task as simple as opening the mail can bring the harsh reality of Kennedy’s absence rushing back, as it did in April when Ms. Sanders received a letter from the county election office informing her that her daughter would be removed from the list of registered voters.
“Whenever you deal with this, you are in disbelief and shock for a long time,” mentioned Ms. Sanders. “But every now and then, you know, something happens that makes you realize that it’s really real, and she is really gone.”
