Fallen Palm Bay soldier returns home as hero

Fallen Palm Bay soldier returns home as hero
Palm Bay soldier, 23, killed by bomb in Afghanistan
10:50 AM, Oct. 26, 2011
Written by
R. Norman Moody
FLORIDA TODAY

PALM BAY — “I love you the ‘mostest,’ ” Army Specialist Jeremiah “Jerry” Sancho told his wife the last time they talked.

“I would say, ‘I love you,’ ” his wife, RaiAnne Sancho told FLORIDA TODAY this week, fighting back tears. “He would say, ‘I love you the mostest.’ ”

Sancho, 23, of Palm Bay, who was serving with the Army’s 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, died Oct. 13 in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, when a roadside bomb hit his patrol.

“I’m missing him horribly, I’m screaming inside,” his mother, Janet Diaz, said this week. “I was proud to say that was my son.”

Sancho returned home Tuesday, his body met at Melbourne International Airport by family and a police-led escort of more than 100 veterans on motorcycles, plus two dozen cars and trucks. Police maintained rolling roadblocks for the motorcade’s seven-mile trip to Buggs Funeral Home.
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Fallen soldier taken to final resting place: The body of Jerry Sancho is led by a veterans procession from Melbourne Airport to Buggs Funeral Home in Melbourne. By Tim Shortt Posted Oct. 25, 2011