| Updated: 11/09/2011 11:49 am |
Published: 11/09/2011 11:47 am
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An Oklahoma National Guard Soldier killed in Afghanistan will be laid to rest in Arkansas on November 11.
Spc. Sarina N. Butcher, 19, of Checotah, Okla. was killed after an IED detonated near their military vehicle, another Oklahoma Guard Soldier, Sgt. Christopher D. Gailey, 26, of Ochelata, Okla., also died in the blast.
Butcher and Gailey were members of the Company F, 700th Brigade Support Battalion, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team based out of Tulsa.
Funeral services with military honors will be held at the Brazzel-Cornish Funeral Home in Prescott, Ark., at 2 p.m., and burial will follow in Friendship Cemetery near McCaskill, Ark.
Spc. Butcher was posthumously promoted and is the first female Oklahoma National Guard Soldier to be killed during wartime. She is also the youngest Oklahoma Citizen-Soldier to die in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Spc. Sarina Butcher left her friends, family and a young child to help defend our nation," said Maj. Gen. Myles Deering, adjutant general for Oklahoma. "She was a brave young woman who selflessly gave all she had for her country."
14 Soldiers from the 45th have died in Afghanistan since the end of July, 19 Oklahoma Guard Soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11.
