NY Newsday -- The family of a one-time Brooklyn resident and ex-Panamanian army captain was in mourning Christmas Day after receiving confirmation he'd been killed in last week's suicide blast in Mosul.
The Department of Defense on Friday confirmed that Staff Sgt. Julian S. Melo, 47, was among 14 American soldiers who died in Tuesday's bloody attack on an Army mess hall.
Reached at her home Saturday in Washington state, Melo's wife, Norma, said the family was asking that the media respect their privacy, and referred calls to the Public Affairs office at Fort Lewis in Washington, where her husband had been based. That line was unattended on the Christmas holiday.
Published reports on Saturday said Melo had been a one-time captain in the Panamanian Army under Manuel Noriega in the early 1980s, and that he had settled in Brooklyn after the U.S. overthrew that government.
His father, Julian Melo Sr., had been Noriega's top aide, but the younger Melo had cut off relations with him, she said.
Melo joined the U.S. Army as a private in 1992 and met his wife while stationed in Germany.
A sister, Yaritza Moulton, told newspapers Friday that her brother was a die-hard Yankees fan who was eager to come home in April.
Melo was assigned to the 1st battalion's Stryker Brigade. Aside from his wife, he is survived by a teenage son. Funeral plans were unavailable.