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National
Slain Navajo soldier enlisted to receive education


Army Pfc. Harry Shondee Jr., 19, was a member of the National Honor Society and a popular student but couldn't round up any scholarships to attend college.

So he enlisted in the Army in hopes of getting money to pay for his education, his father said. Barely a year out of high school, he was sent to Iraq, where he was killed last week by a car bomb.

"He went for you, for me, for his siblings, for all the people on the reservation and all the people of the United States," his father, Harry Shondee Sr., told The Farmington Daily Times. "For our freedom."

Shondee was the second Navajo Nation member to die in Iraq. Sgt. Lee Duane Todacheene was killed in April.

Get the Story:
Father recalls son as warrior (The Farmington Daily Times 8/10)

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Second Navajo soldier dies while serving in Iraq (8/6)
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