STAFF WRITER
CENTERVILLE - They were sweethearts since their early teens, married two years ago and expecting their first child in April.
Army St. Alexander Henry Fuller
(Cape Cod Times)
But late Thursday night, Anastacia Fuller, 19, of Centerville, MA on Cape Cod, learned that her husband, Army Sgt. Alexander Henry Fuller, 21, was killed in Iraq when a bomb exploded near his convoy.
Two military men came to the home the couple shared with her parents on Thread Needle Lane. It was 10:30 at night.
''He was the best damn soldier, I think, in the whole Army,'' Fuller said yesterday recalling her husband's quick rise to a military leadership position.
She sat in the kitchen surrounded by family, with plates of food wrapped in aluminum foil and a pamphlet about grieving on the counter. A bulky navy sweatshirt hid her pregnancy. Her face was wan and her eyes red.
''He was the best soldier,'' she repeated. ''He tried to make a difference.''
Alex Fuller, who was born in New Bedford, had hoped to be a police officer when he got out of the Army - even though he was also very interested in recording and writing rap music, his wife said. He met Anastacia, who at age 3 immigrated with her family from Russia, when she was 13 at a teen dance in Hyannis. They quickly decided they belonged together.
Alex joined the Army in 2004 after some bouncing around in his youth from Florida to Cape Cod, living with a friend at times and with Anastacia's family.
The couple was married Oct. 16, 2004, in South Yarmouth, between Army boot camp and Alex's first assignment in South Korea. He and Anastacia also spent a year in Colorado during his second assignment. He had been in Iraq since October and had recently seen his first photo of Anastacia's expanding stomach.
In a recent telephone conversation, Alex told his young bride he was ready to come home, Anastacia said.
''He was like a son to me,'' said Anastacia's mother, Irena Zinov. ''Every time he could, he tried to help with something around the house. ... I can't really count the ways, why he was so important. He was just like a son and it's an unimaginable loss that no mother should experience.''
Mary Ann Bragg can be reached at mbragg@capecodonline.com.
(Published: January 2
8, 2007)The Boston Channel interview with Anastacia Fuller, 19 year old Cape Cod teenager, who quoted Alex's last conversation with her on Tuesday,......
" I got bad feelings... We're just dying over here, we shouldn't be here! "
-Army Sgt. Alexander Henry Fuller spoke out on Tuesday, January 23, 2007
He died on Thursday while we were in Earth House, making banners and posters for our march on Washington, DC
