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TRIBUTE TO OUR MILITARY
Maria I. Ortiz
Bayamon, Puerto Rico
July 10, 2007
Kirk U.S. Army Health Clinic
Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
DOD July 12, 2007
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Capt. Maria I. Ortiz, 40, of Bayamon, P.R., died July 10 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from enemy indirect fire. She was assigned to the Kirk U.S. Army Health Clinic, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
Maria I. Ortiz
Captain Maria Ortiz, who was killed in a mortar attack on July 10, 2007, is the first army nurse to die in combat since the Vietnam war.
Ortiz was born in New Jersey, but grew up in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. She enlisted in 1991, at the age of 24. She got her degree in nursing in 1999 from the University of Puerto Rico and her master’s degree in quality management from the Massachusetts National Graduate School in 2004. She has also been stationed in Puerto Rico, Korea and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
Ortiz is survived by her father, her mother, Iris Santiago, four sisters and her fiance, Juan Casiano.