Philadelphia Inquirer
December 17, 2003
Penna. Soldier Dies In Her Husband's Arms
By Associated Press
CARLISLE, Pa. -

A Pennsylvania soldier died in her husband's arms in Iraq hours after an improvised explosive device she was trying to defuse went off, relatives said Monday.

Staff Sgt. Kimberly A. Voelz, 27, of Carlisle, was killed Sunday in Iskandariyah, Iraq, as her unit was responding to a call to dispose of explosives, the Defense Department said.

As Sgt. Voelz was being taken to the hospital, her husband, Staff Sgt. Max Voelz, who was stationed nearby, received word of her injury and rushed to her side at the military hospital at the Baghdad airport, her family said. She died a few hours later.

"He was there to hold her when she died. God wanted that," said Floyd Fahnestock, her father, of Monroe Township. Sgt. Voelz, a 1994 graduate of Trinity High School in Lower Allen Township, and her husband were assigned to the 703d Explosive Ordnance Detachment from Fort Knox, Ky. They met during bomb disposal training and married four years ago.

The two were members of separate teams, he at the unit's main base and she at a satellite base nearby. She went on five to seven missions a day, her father said.

"She believed in what she was doing over there to help the Iraqi people," said Carol Fahnestock, her mother. "She died for America."

The Bronze Star and Purple Heart, awarded posthumously, will be pinned to her uniform when she is buried, her parents said.

Relatives said they were not surprised that she had chosen such a dangerous specialty after enlisting in the Army eight years ago.

"My sister has been a daredevil all her life," said her younger brother, Chad. "She liked the adventure."
Funeral arrangements were incomplete, but Sgt. Voelz will be buried in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery with full military honors.