Aracely Gonzalez-O'Malley, Army, Staff Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

Aracely Gonzalez-O'Malley, 31

Army, Staff Sergeant
Based: Ft. Shafter, Hawaii
307th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 516th Signal Brigade, 311th Signal Command
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: October 22, 2010
Hamburg, Germany
Married, 3 children
Gender: Female
Hometown: Brawley
High School: Brawley High (Brawley)
Burial: Desert Lawn Memorial Park, Yuma

From Military Times:

Aracely Gonzalez O’Malley’s husband says she joined the Army because she wanted to do something that made her children proud.

In the same year that she was deployed to Afghanistan, she also gave birth to a son. While she could have postponed her deployment, she didn’t. She had wanted to deploy with her husband, Sgt. Ryan O’Malley, 24.

“She did everything for the kids,” her husband said.

Gonzalez O’Malley’s sister Lizbeth Gonzalez of Yuma, Ariz., says she once told her family that she wanted her sons to serve one day, too.

The 31-year-old mother from Brawley, Calif, died Oct. 21 at Homburg, Germany. Her family told the Los Angeles Times that she suffered a brain aneurysm nine days earlier while serving in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan.

She had been assigned to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

She enlisted in the Army in 2002 and met her husband while based at Fort Shafter in Hawaii four years later.

The Times reported that friends and relatives remembered her as a proud soldier who was outgoing and a die-hard San Diego Chargers fan.

Army Staff Sergeant Aracely Gonzalez O'Malley is survived by her husband, Ryan P. O'Malley; children, Sidney, Riley and Sean; parents, Armando and Juanita Gonzalez; brothers, Santiago and Armando Gonzalez; and sisters, Lizbeth and Paulette Gonzalez.

From Beyond The Sail:

One could argue our grief is tiny compared to the sorrow that the Gonzalez-OMalley families suffer. But that misses the point. As a soldier, SSgt O’Malley’s life reached beyond the circle of her family, friends and fellow soldiers. Her life, dedicated to serve those who daily enjoy their freedom, also reached far beyond her what might be considered a circle of influence.

Read the entire piece at Beyond the Sail here. Find more in the LA Times and visit Staff Sergeant Aracely Gonzalez O'Malley's Guest Book.