
NEW ORLEANS — Brenda Jobin was preparing for work when a military officer appeared at her front door.
“Once I saw the uniform, I just (thought), ‘My baby,”’ said Jobin, whose 23-year-old son, Spc. Jeremy Heines, was fighting in Iraq.
Heines’ mother and stepfather, Henry, were informed that the young soldier had died in a firefight Friday night in Iraq when a rocket-propelled grenade punched through the windshield of his military vehicle.
“I just froze. I went into shock,” Jobin said. “He was my heart. He wanted to do his part for his country.”
Heines had joined the army after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and married a fellow soldier at Fort Hood,...