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Tampa Contractor Killed In Afghanistan

Family photo

Santos Cardona, second from the right, will be honored at services Tuesday and Wednesday in Fullerton, Calif., where Cardona's family lives.

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By KATIE CORONADO | News Channel 8

Published: March 4, 2009

"I cried, when I got off the phone; I don't think I've ever sobbed like I did at that moment."

It has been less than a week since 36-year-old Heather Ashby received the news that her partner of 11 years was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

Ashby said Santos Cardona was on a patrol early Saturday morning. There had been many roadside bombs in the past few days, and "they wanted him to go out with his dog. The explosion split the Humvee he was in, and it landed on top of him. He was killed instantly."

Cardona was a contractor with American Canine, a Florida-based contracting company. The 34-year old had been working with a bomb dog since November 2008 and was under a one-year contract. Prior to that, Cardona served as a military police officer, and had been a dog handler since 1993. "He had been everywhere from Haiti to Bosnia to Iraq," Ashby said.

Cardona had been in Tampa for about a year and a half after being stationed in Fort Bragg, but was having trouble securing a good job, so he decided that working as a contractor would be a good financial opportunity. "Something to get up on our feet and get moving; he was planning on opening a security business when he got done," Ashby said.

The couple's 9-year-old daughter, Keelyn Cardona, learned that her father is not coming home. "She cried on Saturday and Sunday, and went to church. Her grandmother spoke with her about what happened, and she's writing something for his funeral," Ashby said.

The girl told her mother she's worried about how her father's dog, Duco, is going to be affected when he realizes Cardona is not coming home. Duco was Cardona's bomb dog in Iraq, and Cardona adopted Duco when the dog retired.

Ashby said Cardona was supposed to come home at the end of April, and she would have begged him not to go back. "Every person I know begged him not to go. You could almost see it in his eyes he didn't want to go. I think he was very nervous of going."

The funeral service will take place Tuesday and Wednesday in Fullerton, Calif., where Cardona's family lives.

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