A graduate of Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale, where she was in ROTC, Samuels, of Mitchellville, was killed by enemy fire Wednesday in Taji, Iraq. She was stationed there as an intelligence officer with Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, according to a Defense Department statement.

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She said her daughter was terrified to be in Iraq and planned to leave the military as soon as she could. Lawal also said her daughter was not cut out to be a soldier and tried to hide her fear during their telephone calls, including their last one, on Aug. 6, when Samuels called to wish her mother a happy birthday.

"She was just like the other soldiers," Lawal said. "They can't come out and say it because they will get in trouble, but many of them don't believe in this mission. She didn't."

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"I am very upset that this has happened," Samuels's distraught mother, Anika Lawal of Waldorf, said yesterday. "I want to know why I'm planning a funeral while George Bush is planning a wedding."