‘Still in shock’: Families of slain Ga. soldiers react to drone attack
WAYCROSS, Ga. - Families of the three Army reservists from Georgia killed in an overseas drone attack began making funeral arrangements Tuesday as they dealt with grief and sadness.
Killed in the attack were Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrolton; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah.
“I’m still in shock,” said Oneida Oliver-Sanders Monday at her home in Waycross. Her 24-year-old daughter, Specialist Kennedy Sanders, was among the casualties.
Oliver-Sanders said her daughter loved life.
“Kennedy was very athletic, very outgoing,” said her mother. “People call her goofy. She was laughing, playing, smiling.”
Sanders enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve in 2019 and became friends with Breonna Moffett. Both women became horizontal construction engineers and were first assigned to the 381st Engineer Company in Tifton. They were later assigned to Fort Moore, previously called Fort Benning, near Columbus.
Rivers, a native of Willingboro, New Jersey, enlisted in The U.S. Army Reserve in 2011 as an interior electrician. In 2018, he completed a 9-month rotation to Iraq.
Moffett was from Savannah and was 23 years old.
“She was my firstborn,” Francine Moffett said as she fought back tears. “She was so amazing.”
Her mother says she’s proud of her daughter.
“I was the first female in the family to the military,” Francine Moffett said, “so she became the second.”
BIDEN SPEAKS TO FAMILIES:
- In separate calls with the slain soldiers’ families, President Joe Biden extended his condolences. With all three families’ , Biden will attend Friday’s dignified transfer of the fallen service ’ remains at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
Rivers’ family declined a request for an interview. An American flag flew outside their Carrollton home.
Sanders ed the Army Reserve five years ago, her father said. She previously deployed to Djibouti before volunteering to go to Kuwait, a trip that included a few months in Jordan where the U.S. operates a logistics base along the Syrian border.
In her spare time while deployed, Sanders would practice jiu-jitsu and run to keep in shape. She relaxed by knitting and called home almost daily, her parents said. While she occasionally mentioned drones being shot down nearby, there was no sense of imminent danger.
“She was speaking with her mom the day before,” Shawn Sanders said. “It wasn’t like they were at high alert or in a secure bunker.”
Though some family had seen TV news reports of the drone attack, Sanders’ parents said they weren’t aware anything was wrong until military officers knocked at their door Sunday. Shawn Sanders said he waited 20 minutes while his wife came home from work. He said he immediately suspected the worst.
“I knew, being a former member of the armed services,” he said. “I wanted it to be something different. But I knew then.”
Sanders’ mother said her daughter had talked of becoming a full-time Army soldier on active duty once her reservist contract was up. She was considering buying a home. And she looked forward to more trips and had even studied Italian in hopes of visiting Italy someday.
“All of these different things that she had plans for, you know, were just cut short in the blink of an eye,” Oneida Sanders said. “I just feel like somebody like her, that’s so full of life, it’s just unfair that she’ll never get to realize those dreams that she had.”
President Joe Biden has promised that the U.S. will respond.
Shawn Sanders said he’s confident Biden will make an appropriate decision. Asked what he thinks would be the correct response, the grieving father declined to say.
“Out of anger for losing a child,” he said, “I just can’t.”
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