What we know about the 3 Ga. soldiers killed in Mideast attack
ATLANTA, Ga. - Described by their parents as bubbly and constantly laughing, Spc. Kennedy Sanders and Spc. Breonna Moffett became close friends soon after enlisting in the Army Reserve five years ago. Sgt. William Jerome Rivers served a tour in Iraq before ing the same company of Army engineers.
The three Army reservists from Georgia were killed Sunday in a drone strike on a U.S. military base in Jordan near the Syrian border. Their families said they were shocked when uniformed military officers came to their doors to deliver the news.
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They’re making funeral arrangements as they deal with their grief.
The three slain reservists were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion from the 926th Engineer Brigade, based at Fort Moore, previously called Fort Benning, near Columbus.
Here’s a look at the fallen soldiers’ lives and service:
Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders
A native of Waycross, 24-year-old Sanders volunteered for the Middle East deployment, eager to see a new part of the world, her parents said.
At home, she helped coach children’s soccer and basketball teams. She also worked at a pharmacy while taking college courses with the aim of becoming an X-ray technician. Lately, however, she had considered becoming a full-time soldier on active duty once her Army Reserve contract was fulfilled.
“I’m still in shock,” Sanders’ mother Oneida Oliver-Sanders told Atlanta News First at her home in Waycross on Monday.
Oliver-Sanders said her daughter loved life.
“Kennedy was very athletic, very outgoing,” her mother told Atlanta News First. “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.
Her parents said her unit first deployed to Kuwait, then to Jordan, where the U.S. operates a logistics base along the Syrian border.
According to the U.S. Army Reserve, Sanders also completed an eight-month rotation to Djibouti in of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2021.
“She was loved. She didn’t have any enemies. All the time you saw her smiling,” her father Shawn Sanders said in an interview with The Associated Press Monday. “This is somebody who was just living life, enjoying life at a young age, working toward a career.”
Sanders would practice jiu-jitsu in her spare time 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, said Oliver-Sanders.
When they last spoke the day before she was killed, Sanders said she was thinking about buying a motorcycle – much to her mother’s disapproval. She had also spoken recently of buying a home.
“All of these different things that she had plans for, you know, were just cut short in the blink of an eye,” Oliver-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.”
Sanders’ military award and decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” Device, according to the Army Reserve.
Comedian George Wallace posted to Instagram that Spc. Kennedy Sanders was a member of his family and asked for prayers for all the U.S. soldier’s families.
On Monday, flags were lowered to half-staff in Waycross for Sanders.
Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett
Moffett, 23, was from Savannah. Her parents said she celebrated her 23rd birthday overseas just nine days before she was killed.
She ed the Army Reserve in 2019 after graduating from high school. In addition to her military service, she worked for a home care provider cooking, cleaning and running errands for people with disabilities, her parents said. When Moffett left with fellow soldiers from the 718th Engineer Company, 926th Engineer Battalion based at Fort Moore in August, it was her first overseas deployment.
She was the oldest of four siblings. Every morning, Francine Moffett said, her 8-year-old daughter would call her big sister to say hello while riding to school.
Whenever the Moffett family called, they typically would hear from Sanders too.
“Every time I’d call Breonna, I’d see Sanders just stick her head in and say, `Hey! How you doing?’” Francine Moffett said.
“She was my firstborn,” Francine Moffett told Atlanta News First Monday as she fought back tears. “She was so amazing.”
Her mother said 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.”
Breonna Moffett’s awards include the National Defense Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon, according to the Army Reserve.
Sgt. William Jerome Rivers
At age 46, Rivers had the most military experience of the three slain soldiers. The Defense Department said he ed the Army Reserve in New Jersey in 2011 as an electrician and served a nine-month tour in Iraq in 2018.
He ed the 718th Engineering Company at Fort Moore last year and lived in Carrollton.
According to the Army Reserve, Rivers earned many awards and decorations, including the Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, two Army Reserve Component Overseas Training Ribbon, Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” Device, and the Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal with Campaign Star.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Barry Gardner, the president of the Carroll County Veterans Memorial Park Association, said soon they will add Rivers’ name to their wall honoring soldiers killed in action.
Rivers’ family declined a request for an interview with Atlanta News First. An American flag flew outside their Carrollton home Monday.
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