Army Sgt. Zainah C. Creamer

Remember Our Heroes

Army Sgt. Zainah C. Creamer, 28, of Texarkana, Ark.

Sgt Creamer was assigned to 212th Military Police Detachment, Headquarters Battalion, Fort Belvoir, Va.; died Jan. 12, 2011 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked her unit with an improvised explosive device.

She was an Army sergeant, based in Northern Virginia, and she was an Army dog handler. Last month, a cousin said, she posted pictures on the Internet of herself and the dog, costumed for Christmas, in Afghanistan.

Sgt. Zainah Caye Creamer, 28, who was based at Fort Belvoir, was in the military police, and she and her working dog, Jofa, were assigned to check vehicles and facilities for explosives, a Belvoir spokesman said. The two had gone to Afghanistan in October.

Creamer was killed Wednesday in Kandahar province when insurgents attacked her unit with an improvised explosive device, the Pentagon said.

Details of the incident were sketchy. But Don Carr, the Belvoir spokesman, said Creamer and the dog were doing their job, carrying out "a route and building clearance mission" when the blast occurred.

Creamer went to high school in Texarkana, Ark., and "always loved animals," her cousin, Samantha Creamer, said Sunday in an interview. Other interests included hunting and fishing, the cousin said, as well as the martial art of taekwondo.

She "absolutely loved being in the Army," the cousin said. She enjoyed serving, and she "loved her dog she had in the Army."

Samantha Creamer said that her cousin was often "smiling and laughing" and caring for others and that she rarely had a bad word for anybody. "Everybody that knew her loved her," the cousin said. "'She touched a lot of people for the short amount of time she was on Earth," her cousin said. "That was her personality."

Creamer, who was single, was assigned to the 212th Military Police Detachment, Headquarters Battalion at Fort Belvoir. Fort Belvoir spokesman Don Carr said that Creamer had been in the Army for six years and three months and had been assigned to the 212th since October of 2009.

"This was her third deployment, but her first as a Military Working Dog handler," said Carr. Creamer and her work dog, Jofa, left for Afghanistan in October. Jofa was not hurt in the attack.

Creamer's aunt — Pat Willis — told the Texarkana Gazette that the memorial service will be Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church. Willis said burial is likely to take place in the Phillipines.

Army Sgt. Zainah C. Creamer was killed in action on 1/12/11.