
BALTIMORE — Pfc. Amy Duerksen grew up an Army brat, the third generation of a military family. But she never really expressed an interest in joining the military herself, until she started looking into financial aid for college.
“She didn’t know where she wanted to go or what she wanted to major in,” her father, Maj. Douglas W. Duerksen, an Army chaplain at Aberdeen Proving Ground, said Wednesday.
Amy decided on the Army, enlisting in April. She was deployed to Iraq with her unit — the 4th Combat Support Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas — on Christmas Day.
Amy Duerksen, 19, died March 11 of injuries sustained in a non-combat incident on March 8, her father and the Pentagon said.
“Amy was always quick with a smile and gentle in spirit,” her father said. “She loved the Lord and...