MIAMI, FL, USA U.S. Army CPL, COMPANY B, 1ST BATTALION, 38TH INFANTRY, 4 BCT, FORT LEWIS, WA BAGHDAD, IRAQ 05/28/2007
Corporal Sanchez Cedeno, 20, of Miami, died May 28 when an explosive detonated nearby during a dismounted patrol in Baghdad. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, one of two Fort Lewis Stryker brigades serving in Iraq.
Sanchez joined the Army in November 2005 and reported to Fort Lewis last June for assignment to the 4th Brigade’s 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry. The unit left for Iraq last month. He was posthumously promoted from the rank of private first class.
His cousin, Joel Morel Jimenez, remembered him as a generous and loyal friend who spent hours playing video baseball games – choosing teams that would let him use Dominican legend Sammy Sosa.
Sanchez Cedeno was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to Puerto Rico and then Florida as a youngster. He had joined the military in hopes of becoming a commercial pilot, a dream of his since age 16, said his grandmother Miguelina Cedeno.
His friend, Specialist. Michael Lind, said Sanchez Cedeno was tireless in training. “He never quit,” Lind said. “He charged hills like a billy goat.”
Captain Craig Butera said Cedeno aspired to attend Ranger school when he got back from Iraq. “Had he had the chance, we all know he would have finished Ranger school and would have been a great example of all the character that is embodied in the Rangers,” Butera said.
He also is survived by his mother, Dinora Sanchez, and father, Ramon Jimenez Cedeno.
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