Erika and John Mancini, of Lincoln, learned Thursday night that a son, Sgt. Curtis Mancini, 43, had been killed that day in the blast at a weapons cache.

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, January 31, 2004

BY CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY
Journal Staff Writer

LINCOLN -- Erika and John Mancini thought their son's new assignment in Afghanistan would be safer than his last one in Iraq.

Late Thursday night, a knock at their door told them they were wrong.

Army Sgt. Curtis Mancini, 43, was killed along with six other soldiers in an explosion at a weapons cache where troops were destroying Taliban arms on Thursday. An eighth soldier was reported missing last night.

Mancini, an Army reservist, lived in Florida, where he worked as a detective with the police department in Davie, a community outside Fort Lauderdale. He was the father of three children, ages 22, 18 and 17.

"He was a law-and-order guy, straight down the line," said his mother, who lives in Lincoln and works as a teacher's assistant at Lonsdale Elementary School.

Mancini entered the Army Reserve after he graduated from Lincoln High School. When he completed his military training, he settled in Florida with his family.

Mancini joined the Davie Police Department in 1987, and spent nine years attached to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He earned four achievement awards from the DEA, as well as Outstanding Law Enforcement awards. He returned to his department in 2000 as a training officer.

Mancini, who was divorced, was a muscular 5-foot 8-inches tall, and an avid runner. He loved to golf, ski and ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles with his girlfriend, Cindy Turner, who has her own Harley.

He graduated from Barry University in Miami and was working on a master's degree in education when he was called to active duty in January 2003.

As a member of a civil-affairs unit, he was sent to Hungary to train Iraqi exiles to be interpreters for American soldiers. When the Iraqi exiles were sent to Iraq, he went with them. He returned home in April.

Mancini was given the choice to return to Florida and wait for another deployment to Iraq, or take a nine-month assignment in Afghanistan. He decided to go to Afghanistan so he could be home in time for his son's wedding, in October.

His parents visited at Fort Bragg -- Mancini's birthplace -- before he left. Mancini's father, John, had spent 35 years as an Army officer. Sergeant Mancini moved to Rhode Island at age 2, and to Lincoln at 7.

The elder Mancini said his son "strongly wanted" to take on the task.

"He knows, as a reservist, they train for this. And when they have the opportunity to do what they are trained for, they want to do it," said Mancini, who recently retired from the state Department of Corrections.

Sergeant Mancini arrived in Afghanistan three weeks ago. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion Infantry, 10th Mountain Division in Bagram. His job was to act as liaison between the military and local villages. His mother said she was getting a bad feeling about the deployment. Communication was so poor in Afghanistan -- Sergeant Mancini referred to it as the "Stone Age" -- that his parents didn't get regular e-mails from him, as they did when he was in Iraq.

The couple had not heard about the explosion in a town 75 miles south of Kabul. On Thursday night, after a dinner at a relative's house, they returned home around 10:30. There was a knock at the door. Mr. Mancini said he will never forget that moment. He opened the door and found a military officer standing next to a chaplain, just like in the movies, he said.

"I said to my wife, this is not good news," he said.

The officer told them what he knew, which wasn't much.

"We don't know if it was an accident or a booby trap," Mr. Mancini said.

In addition to his parents, Mancini leaves his children Mikel, 22, Sara, 18, and Kristen, 17, who live in Dania, Fla.; a brother, Michael Mancini of Woonsocket; a sister, Lisa Moulson of Attleboro; and a large clan of aunts, uncles and cousins.

The family will bury Sergeant Mancini at Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter.

"It's got to stop," Mrs. Mancini said last night. "We've got to bring those boys home. Too many mothers' hearts ache."