DOB/DOD:November 21, 1981 (Bridgeport, CT) – April 7, 2004; 22 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married Adrian Felder (1981-) on December 20, 2002, in Pierce, Washington
LOCAL ADDRESS: Farnham Avenue; New Haven
ENLISTMENT: September 17, 2001 [six days after the attacks of 9/11/2001]
MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY: 92G; Food Service Specialist
UNIT: Headquarters and Headquarters Company (“Outlaws”), 296th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division; Fort Lewis, Washington
FAMILY: Born to Ray C. Sr. (1952-) and Ilene Patricia Booker Avery (1957-). One sister, Danene L. Avery Smalls (1978-). One brother, Ray Jr. (1987-).
DECORATIONS: Awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, Global War on Terrorism Medal (Expeditionary), Global War on Terrorism Medal (Service), Army Service Ribbon, and the Army Overseas Service Ribbon.
CIRCUMSTANCES: Specialist Avery-Felder died on April 7, 2004, from injuries sustained in Mosul, Iraq, on April 4, 2004, when her convoy vehicle was hit with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Balad, Iraq.
Kolbe-Cathedral High School (Bridgeport, CT); Class of 1999
Kolbe Cathedral High School Alumni Association gives an award in Tyanna’s name each year. When the award is presented, the following is read:
Tyanna Avery-Felder was a member of the graduating Class of 1999. On April 7, 2004, she was killed while serving with the United States Army in Iraq. The alumni association has established an award in her memory recognizing good citizenship, patriotism, service to others, and a tireless spirit. This award is being presented to a student who will be visible throughout the senior year as a model of these qualities.
From The News-Tribune (Tacoma, Washington) April 8, 2004
STRYKER SOLDIER KILLED IN ACTION; PARENTS TOLD
The parents of a Stryker brigade soldier deployed to Iraq were notified Wednesday that their daughter was killed in action the week, a Connecticut newspaper has reported. Specialist Tyanna Avery-Felder, 22, apparently died in the insurgent uprisings sweeping the country, The Connecticut Post of Bridgeport reported. Officials at Fort Lewis would neither confirm nor deny the report, and Avery-Felder’s death wasn’t posted on the military’s official casualty list late Wednesday. But her mother. Ilene “Patricia” Avery told a Connecticut Post reporter that two Army officers came to her Bridgeport home Wednesday afternoon to break the news. “They said she was hit by shrapnel in Iraq, but that is all they could tell us,” she told the newspaper. Deployed with the Stryker Brigade since November, Avery Felder was due home next week on a 15-day leave, the newspaper reported. Her father was devastated by his daughter’s death. “I used to call her baby girl all the time,” a sobbing Ray Avery said as Avery-Felder’s relatives gathered at her parent’s Bridgeport home to comfort each other. Eleven members of the Stryker brigade have died since being deployed from Fort Lewis to support military operations in Iraq, including Specialist Philip G. Rogers, who was killed Sunday when his vehicle was blown up by a bomb. A native of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Avery-Felder was enrolled in Southern Connecticut State University in 2001 when she came home one day and announced that she had joined the Army, her mother told the Post. Avery-Felder was stationed at Fort Lewis following basic training. It was there she met and married another soldier, Adrian Felder, in December 2002. Felder was not deployed, the newspaper stated. Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful on Wednesday. The separation was hard on Avery-Felder, but she did her duty, her mother said. “She didn’t want to go there, but she committed herself, so she was going to follow through to the end,” Avery-Felder’s mother told the Post. Connecticut Governor John Rowland ordered state government flags to be lowered to half-staff until Avery-Felder’s burial, the newspaper reported.
From The Harford Courant April 10, 2004
By Diane Scarponi | Associated Press
FAMILY REMEMBERS DAUGHTER, BRIDE
BRIDGEPORT — Army Specialist Adrian Felder and Army Specialist Tyanna Avery-Felder had a whirlwind romance, topped off with a December 2002 wedding. The couple was stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington state, in different jobs and different Army units. A year after the wedding, Avery-Felder shipped out for Iraq with the Stryker Brigade while her husband’s unit, the 1st Special Forces Group, stayed behind. She was killed this week when the truck she was riding in hit a makeshift explosive device on the road — a week before she was scheduled to return to Connecticut for scheduled leave. Avery-Felder was 22. “She was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Felder said Friday with tears in his eyes. He and other relatives held a news conference filled with tears and laughter, combined with pride for Avery-Felder’s service and accomplishments. “What she does, she does all the way — the whole nine yards,” said her mother, Ilene Avery. She grew up in Bridgeport and attended Kolbe Cathedral High School, a Roman Catholic school, where she played basketball and sang in the choir. Her family displayed a photo of Avery-Felder beaming in a royal blue cap and gown as she received her diploma.
Avery-Felder then took classes at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven toward a career in early childhood education, but after completing her freshman year, she changed her plans. “She came home one day and said, ‘Mom, I joined the Army,” her mother recalled.” I said, ‘Oh.’ And that was that.” “She was a very determined person, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to change her mind,” said her older sister, Danene. Felder, who originally is from South Carolina, said his wife enlisted because she wanted to get out of Bridgeport, to further her education, and to meet new people. She worked as a cook for the Stryker Brigade. Another cook who was friends with Felder introduced them. On their first date, they saw the movie “Queen of the Damned,” starring R&B singer and actress Aaliyah, who also died at age 22 in a plane crash in 2001. They married on December 20, 2002. She left for Iraq in November 2003. Felder recalled that his wife was scared to go. “Anybody would be,” he said. Avery-Felder would call or send messages by computer often. Sometimes, she would cry, her husband said. “As time went on, she got stronger,” he said. On the Sunday before she was killed, she called her husband and sent an instant computer message to her mother to tell them she would soon be leaving on a convoy. Her mother said she never wanted to know when a convoy was happening because she worried so much for her daughter’s safety. Convoys to move supplies are dangerous because soldiers are exposed on the road. Attacks on trucks are sometimes done with improvised explosive devices — homemade bombs that are either detonated on contact or by remote control, said Major John Whitford, director of communications for the Connecticut National Guard. Such a device exploded around the 5-ton truck Avery-Felder was riding in on Sunday. She suffered shrapnel wounds and was going to be flown Wednesday to a military hospital in Germany when she died. She had been scheduled for a leave home the following week. Her family was preparing codfish balls, macaroni and cheese, and other foods Avery-Felder loved, and her cousins were excited about a shopping trip they had planned. The family does not yet know when a funeral will be held, but they said she would be buried in Bridgeport. “She’s coming home,” her mother said.
A portion of Orange Street in Bridgeport was given an honorary name for Specialist Avery-Felder.
Specialist Avery-Felder is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, 885 Boston Avenue, Bridgeport, Connecticut; Barnum Section, Lot 12, Grave 3. Photos by Jeff DeWitt.
