SPC Jeremiah T. Sancho, 23, of Palm Bay, Fla., died Oct. 13 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
RaiAnne Bocco tells Florida Today that her husband was deployed in April, almost a year after their wedding in her parents’ Palm Bay backyard.
The 21-year-old says Sancho was so shy that he first asked her out in 2006 by writing a note. She still has that note.
Sancho was based at Fort Drum, N.Y., with the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.
During his Army basic-training graduation ceremony in May 2010, Jerry Sancho surprised his longtime girlfriend, RaiAnne Bocco, by dropping to one knee and proposing behind the bleachers at Fort Benning, Ga.
Seven days later, the couple married in the backyard of RaiAnne’s parents’ house in Palm Bay. Sancho’s grandfather, Eddie, an ordained minister, performed the ceremony.
Sancho, 23, an avid comic-book fan and budding artist, was deployed overseas April 9 as a “mortarman.” The 2007 Palm Bay High graduate was killed Thursday in Afghanistan when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device, the Department of Defense announced.
RaiAnne, 21, learned of her husband’s death the next day while working at the Palm Bay Kmart. By the time her father picked her up and drove her home, an Army chaplain was waiting at the house.
“I was devastated,” she recalled Sunday night, sitting at a computer looking at photographs of Sancho. She bowed her head and cried, unable to speak further.
Sancho’s awards and decorations include the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the NATO Medal and the Combat Action Badge, various media outlets reported Sunday.
He had planned to return to Palm Bay next month on leave.
“I have a hole in my chest. He wasn’t just my son-in-law. He was my son,” said Sharon Bocco, RaiAnne’s mother. “He’s been living here since he was 17 years old.”
Sancho enjoyed video games and playing bass guitar. RaiAnne said they started dating March 11, 2006, after engaging in a friendly neighborhood “dirt fight” with family and friends.
On her Facebook page, RaiAnne posted a farewell message Saturday night:
“Jerry I miss you. I love you so much baby. I don’t know what I’m gonna do without you, but I know you’re watching over me,” she wrote. “I love you and was proud to be your wife.”
SPC Sancho is the 1,810th American casualty in Afghanistan
(Miami Herald http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/17/2458018/florida-soldier-23-dies-in-afghanistan.html)
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