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Photo by Johnny Wagner

Photo by Johnny Wagner

FAIRBANKS — Of Lavada Napier’s four children, Carletta Davis was the bravest.

“She enjoyed jumping out of helicopters,” Napier recalled Saturday as she stood near her daughter’s open grave at the Northern Lights Memorial Park.

It’s been about eight months since a roadside bomb cut short the 34-year-old staff sergeant’s life in northern Iraq. Napier misses her daughter’s laughter more than anything.

Davis was a U.S. Army medic on her third tour of duty supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom when she died. She is the 91st female member of the U.S. forces to die there. Eight have died since, according to a Web site dedicated to counting the war dead.

More than 30 people, including Davis’ husband and three sons, gathered to bury the Bronze Star recipient in Fairbanks. The Rev. Richard L. Wiley of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church led a brief religious service. Nelson Felix-Tolentino Jr. played the saxophone.

As the preacher’s deep baritone voice called for the mourners to bow their heads in prayer, Thomas Davis sat in the front row with his sons, Trey, 15, Theodore, 14, and Tyrique, 9. Napier stood behind them, placing a hand on her son-in-law’s shoulder.

Davis received full military honors at past memorial services. This one was just family and friends, assembled under a cloudy sky, praying and singing hymns. Napier has lost count of the number of memorial services conducted in her daughter’s honor.

There was the church service at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church 12 days after Davis died; the service in Anchorage, where Davis grew up after moving north from Louisiana; and one in New York, where Davis’ husband and boys had moved to wait for her. Services also took place in Washington D.C. and in Iraq.

The family was offered a plot at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, but Napier wanted to bury her daughter here because more relatives live in the western states than in the East. And relatives often visit Alaska. Davis’ grandmother, uncle and adoptive father are all buried in Anchorage.

Davis joined the Army in 1994, three years after graduating from East High School in Anchorage. Her first assignment was in Fort Hood, Texas. She also served at Fort Lewis in Washington state, in South Korea and was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina from October 1996 to April 1997, according to an Army statement.

Davis spent 24 months in Iraq during the four and a half years between April 2003 and Nov. 5, 2007, the day she died.

The Army has said little about the combat operation in Tal Al-Dahab that killed Davis and three other soldiers, including Sgt. Derek T. Stenroos, a 24-year-old North Pole High School graduate.

A bomb went off near the Humvee the soldiers were riding in, stated the U.S. Department of Defense notice announcing the deaths.

Stenroos’ parents attended Davis’ graveside service, and the two mothers embraced.

Kenita Stenroos told Napier that her son, a military police officer, would have been especially sorry about Davis’ death because soldiers are supposed to protect the medics.

The women exchanged phone numbers and made plans to talk again.

Napier said many condolence cards have come in the mail and even a book of poems.

“I get cards from people who were born in the same city (Leesville, La.) as Carletta, by the same midwife,” Napier said. “They don’t even know her.”

Napier and her daughter had talked about what Davis would do after the Army. They dreamed of opening a nursing home either in Fairbanks or Wasilla.

“She enjoyed helping people,” Napier said.

Now Napier is thinking about opening a bed and breakfast, which would have a space dedicated to her daughter, showcasing her many medals, including a Purple Heart, Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korea Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon and the Overseas Service Ribbon.

Davis’ image is featured on a mural outside a clinic in Kirkuk, Iraq, that bears her name. Napier hopes to someday visit the Davis Combat Clinic.

Davis’ three boys spend alternating summers with their grandmother. The Davis family remains in New York, where Carletta’s unit was based.

Napier said her son-in-law, who graduated from a medical program shortly before his wife shipped out, is considering multiple job offers elsewhere.

The funeral ended after Davis’ boys each placed a rose on their mother’s casket, and it was lowered into the ground.

Mourners gathered in groups, comforting each other while a man handed out Kleenex. For a long time, Thomas Davis sat alone facing his wife’s grave, his shoulders’ slumped, his head slightly bowed.

The saxophone kept on playing.