MASHPEE, Mass. -- Two Army sergeants from Massachusetts have been killed in Iraq.
Staff Sergeant Alicia Birchett, 29, died Aug. 9 in Baghdad, the Department of Defense said Wednesday. Birchett, a member of the Wampanoag tribe, is the second woman from Massachusetts to die in Iraq.
Her family said she was fatally injured when the brakes of a truck failed while she changed a tire. She had three children.
An Army sergeant from Franklin also has been killed in combat, according to the town's veterans' agent, Bob Fahey.
Staff Sgt. Robert Ryan Pirelli, 29, was serving in the Special Forces as a Green Beret and was due to come home in October, he said. Pirelli's family was informed of his death Wednesday night, Fahey said.
Birchett was an engineer mechanic assigned to the 887th Engineer Company, 326th Engineer Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Family members said Birchett was an adventurous, practical and dedicated woman who joined the military immediately after graduating from Falmouth High School in 1995. She also served tours of duty in Germany and Korea.
"Joining the Army was her way of contributing to the world and seeing the world," her cousin Beatrice Jackson said.
Since learning of her death, more than a dozen members of Birchett's family have continuously watched over a small outdoor fireplace at the home of her aunt. Mashpee tradition says flames should burn from when a person dies until they are buried.
They plan to bury Birchett Saturday during a tribal ceremony at the Old Indian Cemetery in Mashpee.
"No disrespect to the (military) service, but she's our tribe and that's why we're burying her with our people," said Laverne Jackson, Birchett's aunt.
Birchett had lived in Waynesboro, Tenn. She is survived by her husband and her three sons, ages 2, 4 and 7.
More than 3,700 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. About 60 were from Massachusetts. Another 11 Bay State residents have died in Afghanistan.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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