Worst fears realized for soldier's family
She made it through her son's first deployment -- a three-month tour in Iraq last year. But when Erika Mancini learned that her son would be deployed to Afghanistan last month, she started losing sleep.
"I kept seeing him as a little baby, holding my hand," said Mancini, 64, of Lincoln, R.I. "I didn't know he wasn't coming back, but it's that eerie feeling that you feel in your gut."
Her son, Army Sergeant First Class Curtis Mancini, 43, was one of at least seven American soldiers killed when a weapons cache exploded in Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said.
Mancini, described by family as a "straight arrow" and a "flag-waver," split time between the Army Reserve and drug enforcement work with the police department in Davie, Fla., family members said. Curtis Mancini, a father of three who lived in Fort Lauderdale, joined the military after attending Community College of Rhode Island. He followed in the footsteps of his father, John, a 35-year Army veteran.
"He loved his country, he loved America, apple pie, and Chevrolets," said John Mancini, 65. "He'd bust us up because we'd drive foreign cars. He'd say: `You've got to buy American.' He believed in everything. He supported the president; he supported the chain of command always. He never criticized it."
Curtis Mancini was born in North Carolina, at Fort Bragg, where his father was stationed. The family moved to Rhode Island when he was 2. Mr. Mancini graduated from Lincoln High School and took courses at the community college, where he participated in ROTC. He later graduated from Barry University in Miami and was enrolled in a master's degree program in education when he was called to active duty in January 2003, his father said.
Curtis Mancini joined the Davie Police Department in 1987 and worked several years with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, returning to the Davie police force in 2000 as a training officer.
Mancini was a marathon runner and enjoyed riding his Harley-Davidson with his girlfriend.
"He said he wanted to retire from Police Department in four or five years and move to the Southwest -- New Mexico or Arizona," said John Mancini. "He wanted to build a house and put his feet up."
But John Mancini was always skeptical of his son's plans.
"Although he lived in Florida, he never left New England," John said, pointing out that his son prominently displayed a picture of Fenway Park in his apartment.
Mancini was assigned to the 486th Civil Affairs Battalion in Afghanistan when the ordnance exploded Thursday west of Ghazni. The blast remains under investigation, but "at this time there are no indications of active enemy action near the site of the explosion," Army Lieutenant Colonel David Paschal, commander of the Second Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, said in an e-mail statement.
In addition to his parents, Mr. Mancini leaves a son, Mikel, 22; two daughters, Sara, 18, and Kristen, 17, both of Dania, Fla.; a brother, Michael of Woonsocket, R.I.; and a sister, Lisa Moulson of Attleboro.
Burial will be in Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter at a date to be determined.
