Army Spc. Marisol Heredia

Remember Our Heroes

Army Spc. Marisol Heredia, 19, of El Monte, Calif.

Spc. Heredia was assigned to the 15th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died Sept. 7, 2007 at Brooke Army Medical Center, Texas, of injuries sustained from a non-combat-related injury July 18 in Baghdad.

San Gabriel Valley Tribune -- An El Monte resident has become the latest San Gabriel Valley casualty of the war in Iraq.

Army Spc. Marisol Heredia, 19, died Friday at Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, according to a Defense Department statement released Monday.

Heredia died from "non-combat related injuries" suffered on July 18 in Baghdad, Iraq, the statement read. She had been assigned to the 15th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas.

The circumstances surrounding Heredia's death are still under investigation, according to the statement.

Heredia's relatives were in Texas on Monday and unavailable for comment.

Neighbors at the apartment complex on the 3900 block of Penn Mar Avenue, where Heredia lived with her family, described her as a studious woman who graduated early from Mountain View High School and followed her older sister into the Army.

"They are very good people, unpretentious, hard-working," said Maribel Costantino of the Heredias.

Costantino, who said her daughter is good friends with Heredia's younger sister, said family members told her Heredia was injured in an incident at the base where she was stationed.

"I heard there was a fire, and that she was badly burned," she said.

Army Spc. Marisol Heredia died 9/07/07.