Tuba City, Ariz. ? A photo shows Pfcs. Lori Piestewa and Jessica Lynch in February, the day before they were deployed to the Middle East: roommates, good friends, smiling in their Army fatigues.

Six weeks later their unit moved into Iraq, where they and several of their fellow soldiers vanished. Piestewa’s family on the Navajo Reservation and Lynch’s family a continent away in West Virginia were joined in an agonizing wait for word of their fate.

Saturday, Lynch’s parents left their home to fly to Germany for a reunion with their rescued daughter. Piestewa’s mourned the death of the first American servicewoman killed in the war.

Both women were members of the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company, based at Fort Bliss in Texas. Their unit was attacked March 23 when it made a wrong turn near Nasiriyah.

For Lynch’s family, the miraculous news came Tuesday: U.S. commandos rescued Lynch, wounded but alive, from a hospital.

They unearthed nine bodies as well. Friday night, Piestewa’s family learned that she was among them.

Pfcs. Lori Piestewa, right, and Jessica Lynch pose at Fort Bliss, Texas, the day before their deployment to the Middle East. Piestewa was killed. Lynch was rescued.

Haskell Indian Nations University students attended a prayer vigil Tuesday to support Piestewa, whom some students knew, and other American Indians serving in Iraq.

Piestewa was a member of the Hopi Tribe, whose reservation is near the community of Tuba City. She was a 23-year-old single mother raising a 4-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl in Tuba City.

“Our family is proud of her. She is our hero,” her brother Wayland said Saturday in a prepared statement to reporters. “We are going to hold that in our hearts. She will not be forgotten. It gives us comfort to know that she is at peace right now.”

Hopi officials say 56 Hopis are serving in the U.S. military, 48 of them in Iraq.