Two soldiers from New York, including a 39-year-old West Point graduate, were killed in Afghanistan over the weekend in an insider attack, authorities said.
Long before Army Maj. Jaimie Leonard shipped overseas to serve in treacherous Paktika Province, she was a leader at Warwick Valley High School in Orange County, a former teacher said in a statement Monday.
“She embodied the best a person can be — a leader in the classroom and this building,” Ed Sattler said.
Leonard, an intelligence officer with the 10th Mountain Division, based upstate in Fort Drum, was training at a base Saturday when she and two others were shot by a man in an Afghan Army uniform, authorities said.
Army Lt. Col. Todd Clark, a 40-year-old Albany native, was killed as well. He was identified Monday and Leonard was identified Tuesday. The shooter was also killed.
Relatives en route to Dover, Del., to meet Leonard’s coffin declined to comment Tuesday. But West Point classmate Megan Scanlon tweeted: “Profoundly sad. She will forever be missed.”
“It is a huge loss,” college classmate Susan Alden said, noting that Leonard inspired peers with her intensity and loyalty. “The way she died is even more heartbreaking to me … You want to be able to trust the people inside the wire and you really can’t right now.”
With News Wire Services
