Friends And Family Remember Fallen Soldier

Chicago - The body of an Illinois soldier killed during the shooting spree at Fort Hood has arrived back in Chicago.

It was a somber homecoming for private first class Francheska Velez. She was one of 13 people gunned down at Fort Hood.

The hearse made its way from Midway Airport with a motorcade in front, a helicopter overhead, and a tearful salute as she passed her high school alma mater.

Velez was a Humboldt Park native who graduated from Kelvyn Park High School 3 years ago.

She'd been in the ROTC and joined the Army soon after graduation.

Francheska Velez was the face of the new Army, young, female, and looking to make the military her career.

Elizabeth Colon, a teacher at Kelvyn Park High School, remembers how Velez set her goals.

"She said 'I wanna go to the Army, I wanna a career there, and I want to be a psychologist” Colon said. "That was her dream.”

Velez’s dream ended in gunfire, along with the life of the child she was carrying.

"Francheska was a sweet person," said her high school classmate Ruth Velazquez. "She was very loud, happy, always yelling, always had a smile on her face."

"She was the coolest person there,” said Melinda DeJesus, another high school friend. “She was able to bring so many people together.”

Velez came home from Iraq last August for a two-week visit to celebrate her 21st birthday.

She had also served in Korea, and had just signed up for another three year stint.