
Army Spc. Zeferino Eusebio Colunga was a healthy 220-pound former Texas high school tackle when he was deployed to Kuwait in late April. He died on Wednesday at a hospital in Germany after a battle with acute leukemia his family didn’t know he had as well as pneumonia, his sister said Thursday.
“When he left here, my brother was a totally healthy boy,” Teresa Colunga told The Associated Press from the family home in Bellville, about 50 miles west of Houston.
The Department of Defense on Aug. 7 announced Colunga died at Homburg University Hospital in Germany. He was first evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq on Aug. 4, then evacuated to Landstuhl Army...