Elizabeth Loncki laid to rest

Delaware’s latest casualty of the war in Iraq, 23-year-old Elizabeth Loncki, was buried Saturday at the state’s northern veterans’ cemetery.

Loncki, killed a week ago near Mahmudi-yah, Iraq, was buried with full military honors, posthumously was awarded the Bronze Star and had hundreds of mourners, including dozens of service personnel and elected officials.

She was the first Delaware woman killed in the line of duty in Iraq and the 66th American female to die there in service.

She had only two weeks’ service left before she was scheduled to return home from the service.

Family members said her boyfriend, Sgt. Jayson Johnson, had planned to ask Stephen Loncki for permission to marry his daughter last week.

Instead of flying to Utah and helping the young couple decorate their new home Johnson bought near Hill Air Force Base in Utah, the Loncki family instead had to plan their daughter’s funeral, deal with an onslaught of questions and cameras.

Friends, relatives and supporters of her grieving family packed the calling hours Friday and Mass of Christian Burial held Saturday at St. Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church at Fifth and Harmony streets in New Castle, where she had been a member, officials with Krienen-Griffith Funeral Home.

The attendance at the funeral, the outpouring of support from strangers including elected officials and -- most of all - her posthumous Bronze Star meant a lot to her family, a funeral home representative said.

Loncki -- an athletic young woman and longtime volleyball player -- was a Senior Airman with Air Force Explosive Ordinance Disposal at the time she was killed by a bomb near Baghdad.

She had been stationed at Hill Air Force Base in Utah before her deployment at the end of September.

Family members and military officials praised her enthusiasm for life, her keeping of longtime friends and her commitment to duty.

Loncki was a member of the church where Mass was held, a 1998 graduate of St. Peter Elementary School and a member of Padua Academy’s Class of 2001.

She attended Arizona State University before enlisting in the Air Force in March 2003.

From the News Journal

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