Juana Navarro Arellano, Marines, Lance Corporal -- Rest In Peace

Juana Navarro Arellano, 24

Marines, Lance Corporal
Based: Okinawa, Japan
9th Engineer Support Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: April 8, 2006
Taqaddum, Iraq
Single
Gender: Female
Hometown: Ceres
High School: Peter Johansen High (Modesto)
Foreign Country of Birth: Mexico

From Iraq Page:

Lance Cpl. Juana Navarro Arellano, 24, of Ceres, Calif., died from wounds she received while supporting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq.

According to a Defense Department release, Navarro was assigned to the 9th Engineer Support Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, which is based in Okinawa, Japan.

In June 2005, Cpl. Ramona Valdez and Lance Cpl. Holly Charette, who were assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, were killed by a car bomb in Fallujah. Before Navarro’s death, Valdez and Charette had been the only female Marines killed in Iraq since U.S. forces entered the country in March 2003, a Pentagon spokesman said.
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CERES, Calif. - A 24-year-old woman who was inspired to join the Marines after her younger twin brothers enlisted was fatally shot in the head in Iraq over the weekend.


Lance Cpl. Juana Navarro, of Ceres, was killed Saturday while guarding other soldiers during a mission in the Iraqi province of Anbar, said Marine Capt. Donn Puca.


"This was something she always wanted to do," said her older sister, Beatriz Lopez.


She left for duty in May, her family said.


Navarro was born in Michoacan, Mexico, and she and a twin sister became U.S. citizens at age 13. She graduated from Johansen High School in Modesto in 2000, where she volunteered with special education children.

She showered her three nephews with gifts, Lopez said.

"She was like a second mom to my oldest," Lopez said. "When I told him she died, his face, it just shattered into pieces."

Find remembrances and tributes to Marine Lance Corporal Juana Navarro Arellano at Fallen Heroes.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 David Phinney takes a moment in silence to pay tribute to Lance Cpl. Juana “Chica” Navarro-Arellano, a bulk fuel specialist with 9th Engineer Support Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, who died April 8 from wounds received while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Phinney is the commander of Bulk Fuel Company, 9th ESB

A memorial service for Lance Cpl. Juana “Chica” Navarro-Arellano was held April 13 at Camp Hansen’s West Chapel.

From Born to War: Paintings in honor of the American women killed under military assignment to Iraq. 2003-present