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Family Ponders Tragedy At Sea

Ysasi family photo

Spc. Samuel Valdez, 22, of Plant City, wanted a house in Riverview for his wife, Lynda Ysasi Valdez, and their son, Samuel Jr.

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By GEORGE H. NEWMAN

gnewman@tampatrib.com

Published: March 4, 2009

PLANT CITY - For Lynda Valdez, the emotions were too much Thursday when she toured the Army tugboat from which her soldier husband disappeared off the North Carolina coast.

Lynda Valdez said she broke down when she and other family members visited the Major General Winfield Scott as they struggled to understand the Feb. 22 accident that left 22-year-old Spc. Samuel Valdez of Plant City missing and presumed dead.

"It broke my heart when I went on that boat and saw the place where he slept, where he ate and where he worked. I cried when I stood there in his room," his wife said.

"My heart was in pain when I thought about what he must have gone through in the ocean that day."

Valdez, who joined the Army in 2006 and spent 15 months fighting in Iraq, dreamed of coming home and building a home for his wife, who is three months pregnant, and their 15-month-old son, Sammy Jr. He planned to leave the Army when his hitch was up in January.

"Sammy talked about our future all the time," she said. "He wanted to go to technical school when he got out. He wanted to buy land in Riverview and build us a house. He talked about building a gymnasium in the house where we could work out."

At the Army's invitation, Lynda Valdez and eight other family members toured the tugboat Thursday, escorted by the vessel's master.

Valdez, who wasn't feeling well in rough seas, Army witnesses said, apparently fell through a faulty restraining cable on the tugboat's second deck and went overboard about 15 miles off Drum Inlet, N.C., his family said. Army investigators are continuing to look into the circumstances and have not released an official report.

An Army spokeswoman wouldn't release the name of the tugboat's master.

The missing soldier's sister, Belinda Conde, said Army officials were "very courteous and straight forward.

"They showed us where Sammy slept; where he ate; where he was working before he was lost at sea. They took us down the ladder he used to get to the second deck and where they believe he could have fallen overboard," she said.

Valdez was one of 24 crew members aboard the Major General Winfield Scott, which was on its way to Charleston, S.C., to support a U.S. Navy training mission. He was last seen in the wheelhouse and no one saw him go overboard, so the crew searched the vessel before declaring him missing before noon Feb. 22, an Army spokeswoman said. The tugboat assisted the Coast Guard and Marines in a search that lasted 40 hours. Once the search was suspended early on the morning of Feb. 24, the tugboat returned to its base in Newport News, Va.

Plant City High Principal Colleen Richardson said Valdez, a 2004 graduate of the school, was a quiet and intelligent student.

"I remember Samuel Valdez as a smart student who stayed out of trouble," Richardson said. "He took a lot of advanced subjects like calculus and an honors physics class. I am saddened by the news he is reported missing."

Valdez lived in Newport News, Va. Family members say he was a loving man, a Christian who played trumpet at his church.

Lynda Valdez said there would be a memorial service for her husband at Fort Eustis, Va., where he was stationed.

There will also be a memorial service at the Primera Iglesia Bautista La Fe in Plant City, where the family attends church.

No date has been set for either memorial.

Lynda Valdez said she was left with her memories of "a loving husband and father and who took care of his family every day of his life."

"I loved Sammy with all my heart. My life was so perfect. Our plans were all coming true."

Reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 865-4451.

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