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Associated Press Newswires

Friends, Family Bury Puerto Rican Woman Killed In Attack On Pentagon


December 2, 2001
Copyright © 2001
Associated Press Newswires. All Rights Reserved.

BAYAMON, Puerto Rico (AP) - Friends and family of a U.S. Army accountant killed in the September attacks on the Pentagon gathered Sunday under cloudy skies to bury the remains of Diana Borrero.

Borrero, 55, and her husband, Jose Padro, left the U.S. Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico in 1975 to pursue military careers. Borrero was a soldier for seven years until 1982, when she began working as a civilian for the Department of Defense.

"We liked military life and were seeking new horizons," Padro said. "This is not what I expected."

Borrero, mother of two grown sons, was buried with military honors. The funeral in the San Juan suburb of Bayamon was attended by Army officials, co-workers and other friends and family.

Padro, also retired from the military, worked in the central offices of the Coast Guard. He recalled the shock he felt on Sept. 11, when the hijacked commercial jetliner slammed into the Pentagon, killing his wife and nearly 200 others. Two other jets slammed into the World Trade Center in New York.

"I didn't want to believe it," Padro said. "As the day passed, I kept calling and I realized that no one was answering in her office and she hadn't arrived home. That's when I became alarmed."

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