One of Juana NavarroArellano's passions was spoiling her nephews. As soon as she got her paycheck, NavarroArellano would take it to the nearest toy store to buy gifts for her older sister's three children.

"She was like a second mom to my oldest," Beatriz Lopez said of NavarroArellano's relationship with her son Jose, 9. "When I told him she died, his face, it just shattered into pieces."

NavarroArellano, 24, of Ceres, Calif., was killed April 8 from a gunshot wound to the head in Anbar province. She graduated high school in 2000 and was assigned to Okinawa, Japan.

NavarroArellano was born in Mexico and became a U.S. citizen at 13 along with her twin sister. While in school, she was active as a volunteer with PALS, a class where students work daily with special education students on academics and social skills.

NavarroArellano became good friends with one of the students, Armando, whom she helped. "She would pick him up after school, take him to the house or to the movies," said a brother, Raul. "She was even teaching him to drive."

She also is survived by her mother, Evelia.

"She was an angel on Earth," said Beatriz Lopez. "She really was."