ANCHORAGE, AK, USA U.S. Army SSG, COMPANY C, 10TH BRIGADE SUPPORT BATTALION, 1 BCT, FORT DRUM, NY TAL AL-ADAHAB, IRAQ 11/05/2007
Lavada Napier came to Alaska in 1979 because the wages were much higher than in Louisiana at the time. She left her four children with their grandmother, but after nine months of working, she saved up enough money to move them up here, including her oldest, Carletta.
Napier, who lives in Fairbanks, recounted that Davis was the best-behaved of her children while growing up. An elementary school principal once called her to tell her that two of her younger children had been acting up, and was shocked to learn they were related to her older daughter because Davis was such a model student.
“She didn’t give anyone any trouble,” Napier said. “She was the type of person who always tried to do the right thing.”
Davis enlisted in the Army in 1994, a move that surprised her family.
“I was more afraid for her than herself,” Napier said. “She was scared of spiders and roaches and I said, ‘I hope you know what you’re doing because you’re going to be sleeping outside on the ground.'”
Davis was a health care specialist assigned to the 10th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. She was previously deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1996 and 1997. This was her third tour in Iraq, having served there from April 2003 until March 2004 and from December 2004 until November 2005.
Napier said Davis was worried about returning to Iraq and made sure to spend more time with her family, including her husband and three sons before her most recent deployment.
“I think she was concerned particularly for her children,” Napier said. “She knew the danger of going back a third time.”
She often visited her mother in Fairbanks and was debating between moving there or to Wasilla eventually.
“She came here and said, ‘I don’t know if I can put up with the cold, but you all can, so I should be able to put up with it,’ but she didn’t get that opportunity,” Napier said.
Davis is survived by her mother, husband and three sons, Trey, Theodore and Tyrique.