'She loved her country' and died in Iraq serving it
Army Spc. Toccara Green, a transport operator, had just been home on leave and talked of re-enlisting.
By Anica Butler
Sun Staff
Originally published August 16, 2005
Toccara Green lingered until after midnight that last Sunday in July, eating ribs and ice cream cake and mingling cheerfully with nearly 90 friends and relatives gathered at a backyard barbecue in her honor.
She posed for pictures with new baby cousins and older relatives she had not seen for years. She prayed with members of her church. The next Sunday, her two-week leave over, the 23-year-old Rosedale woman and Army specialist returned to Iraq for the final four months of her second tour of duty.
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Green is the first military woman from Maryland, and the 26th service member from the state, to die in Iraq since U.S. forces invaded the country more than two years ago, according to announcements from the Pentagon.
As friends and family gathered, Green's parents received a phone call from a fellow soldier and friend of their daughter who was there when she died. Green was killed Sunday when explosives detonated near her supply convoy in Al Asad, in western Iraq.
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.soldier16aug16,1,6759583.story?coll=bal-local-headlines~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Md. Soldier Who 'Loved to . . . Help People' Is Killed in Iraq
By Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 16, 2005; Page A02
For the members of the Green family of Maryland, it was about serving the public. The father protected the people of Baltimore as a police detective. The son helped safeguard the nation as a Marine. The daughter joined the Army.
On Sunday, Spec. Toccara R. Green, 23, whose family lives in Rosedale, northeast of Baltimore, was in Al Asad, Iraq, serving with a transportation company and on a mission to replenish the fuel on which the Army runs. She is believed to be the first woman from Maryland killed in combat in Iraq.
She was killed, the Pentagon announced yesterday, in the detonation of "improvised explosive devices," the term often used for roadside bombs. Rocket-propelled grenades also might have been fired, said her brother, Marine Staff Sgt. Garry M. Green Jr.
Toccara Green was in the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, N.Y., and was on her second tour in Iraq. She had told her brother that "it was rough over there."
But, Garry Green said, Toccara had been in the ROTC at Forest Park High School in northwest Baltimore and had long wanted to serve in the Army. She "loved to get out there and help people," he said.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/15/AR2005081500883.html(Free registration required)
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