Southeast Georgia witnessed a mournful gathering on Saturday as two Army Reserve soldiers, remembered as close friends since their enlistment, were honored and laid to rest nearly three weeks after being killed in a Middle East drone attack. Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, 24, was celebrated in a service held at the packed auditorium of Ware County Middle School in Waycross, while at the same time, Sgt. Breonna Moffett, 23, was being mourned 100 miles away in Savannah.
Colleagues and loved ones of Sanders described her as a soldier of courage and loving nature, who always sought to voluntarily tackle tasks few others would accept. "Behind her smile was a fierce determination," Col. Jeffrey Dulgarian said during her service. Sanders had even taken up the challenge to learn how to operate heavy earth-moving equipment to build roads and shelters.
Sanders's former basketball coach, Mandy Lingenfelter, remembered her with fondness, saying, "It was hard for me to yell at her because she was always smiling. ... She had pure joy. She put Jesus first, others second and herself last," according to the USN. Moffett's final homecoming in Savannah was more private, as her family requested the media not be present at the Baptist church funeral service.
Both Moffett and Sanders enlisted in 2019 and, according to the FOX5 Atlanta report, had been deployed to the Middle East last year as construction engineers. They had come to quickly be known for their close friendship. Moffett's mother, Francine Moffett, remarked that calls to her daughter would often also include catching up with Sanders.
Their Army Reserve unit also lost Staff Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, in the January 28 drone strike at a U.S. base in Jordan. All three had been posthumously promoted in rank and were part of the 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, based out of Fort Moore, West Georgia. Off-duty, Moffett was an employee in Savannah for United Cerebral Palsy of Georgia and Sanders worked at a local pharmacy in Waycross, where she also engaged in coaching youth basketball and soccer. The late Sanders had even shared her aspirations to buy a motorcycle once home, her mother Oneida Oliver-Sanders told U.S. News & World Report.
This tragic incident marked the first U.S. fatalities attributed to Iran-backed militia groups after a period of increased tensions and attacks on American forces in the region. The drone strike claimed the lives of these three soldiers and also injured more than 40 troops at Tower 22, a secretive military base crucial for operations in Syria.
