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Bronx soldier killed in Iraq is mourned

MATT FRIEDMAN
June 11, 2006

Grief-stricken family members gathered in the Bronx yesterday to mourn Sgt. Jose M. Velez, an Army Reservist who died Friday in Kirkuk, Iraq, of injuries he suffered the day before, after a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle.

Velez, 35, was assigned to the 773rd Transportation Company, based at Fort Totten in Queens. He was deployed only about a month ago, according to published reports.

"To us, he's a hero," said Yvette Maldanado, the mother of Velez's son, Christopher, 11. The sergeant also reportedly has a 7-year-old daughter.

Relatives and friends visited the home of Velez's father in the Andrew Jackson Houses in the Melrose section of the Bronx yesterday.

Family members, asking that their privacy be respected, referred all reporters to a Reserve spokesman, Bruce Hill. Hill did not return calls.

At least 2,493 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Related topic galleries: Bronx (New York City), Andrew Jackson, International Military Interventions, Death and Dying, Armed Conflicts, Wars and Interventions, Melrose

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