Iraq war claims Gulfport native

“The military was something that he loved, that he wanted to really do.”

SOLDIER KILLED

Candice Brown won't forget the silly faces her husband made to make her laugh, the 25 Christmas letters he sent from Iraq to first-graders at her school, the constant reminders through phone calls and e-mail that he loved her, that she was his Cinderella.

'There is a part in my heart that is gone because that part of my heart... was him,' the 27-year-old said. 'The biggest part of it is gone because he's not here.'

Sgt. Lerando Brown Jr., 27, a Gulfport native, was killed in Balad, Iraq, on Friday, the National Guard solider succumbing to a gunshot wound to his chest. He was with the 288th Sapper Co., based in Houston, Miss., and his wife knows no other details about his death or whether he was on a mission. Read more