Jan 9, 2008 4:00 pm US/Eastern
Army Promotes Missing Lawrence Soldier
FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) ―
The U.S. Army has promoted a Massachusetts soldier missing since his unit was attacked in Iraq eight months ago.
Alex Jimenez of Lawrence has been promoted to the rank of sergeant, in keeping with long-standing Army policy.
His family will receive all entitlements due retroactively to June 26, last year -- the date of his promotion.
Soldiers who are missing or captured are promoted as their time in rank and service makes them eligible, the statement said.
The 25-year-old Jimenez and two other 10th Mountain Division soldiers were seized May 12 when insurgents attacked and overran a checkpoint in a volatile area south of Baghdad.
The body of one soldier was found eleven days later floating in the Euphrates River.
In late December, U.S. forces said they had seized two men possibly linked to the soldiers' capture.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
