A Bronze Star recipient and newlywed with the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg was killed in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan Sunday.

Spc. Jonathan Batista, 22, enrolled in the army as an infantryman in March 2010, and served as a mine detector operator that cleared path in the farmland of Zharay district where he died, according to his 2nd Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Philip Raymond.

Batista, a Kinnelon, N.J., native, had just been married, according to the army’s news release. He attended unit training at Fort Benning, Ga., and joined with A Battery, 2nd Battalion, 321st Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division on October 24, 2011.