Some Gave All

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — A Nebraska Army National Guard soldier was killed in northern Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded near her convoy in Samarra, military officials said Monday.

Sgt. 1st Class Linda Tarango-Griess, 33, of Sutton was killed Sunday, Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke said. Also killed in the attack was Sgt. Jeremy Fischer, 26, of Lincoln.

“Our prayers go out to their families,” Lempke said.

Tarango-Griess and Fischer were members of the 267th Ordnance Company, based in Lincoln, with detachments in Gering and Hastings. The company was sent to Iraq in February from Fort Riley, Kan.

Tarango-Griess’ parents, Augustin and Juanita Tarango of North Platte, said they last talked to their daughter at 1 a.m. Sunday. About 18 hours later, Army Reserve officials arrived at their home to deliver the news of Tarango-Griess’ death.

Tarango-Griess’ sister, Vicky Tarango-Smith, said her sister was looking forward to coming home on leave in two weeks.

Military officials in Iraq said a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. patrol passed in Samarra, a hotbed of violence 60 miles north of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and wounding three others.

Tarango-Griess and Fischer bring to 17 the number of U.S. service members with connections to Nebraska to have died since the beginning of military operations following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In addition to her parents, Tarango-Griess is survived by her husband, Nebraska Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Douglas L. Griess.

“Hearing that she’s gone is kind of hard to believe right now,” he said.

Griess also spoke with his wife hours before her death.

“I e-mailed her and told her to contact me. She called me right after midnight,” he said. “We talked about her getting some leave time.”

Griess had recently received a pass to go home from his military training. He said he wanted to spend time with his wife, who had been serving in Iraq since February.

“Being that we were both in the military, we’ve been separated for a period of time,” he said. “You learn how to deal with it. After it had been four or five months, it starts to take a toll.”

The couple met in 1991 while both serving in a National Guard Unit in York. They had been married 10 years and had no children.

“She really loved her military career,” he said.

Family mourns Nebraska soldier killed in Iraq

CLOVIS, N.M. — A Nebraska National Guard sergeant who was killed July 11 in Iraq has aunts, uncles and 16 cousins in New Mexico who think of her as a hero and mourn her loss.

Sgt. 1st Class Linda Ann Tarango-Griess, 33, of Sutton, Neb., was the victim of a roadside bomb that exploded near her convoy outside Samarra, the Pentagon said last week in identifying her.

One of her cousins, Linda Hernandez of Clovis, says she has three of her cousin’s e-mails to which she will never be able to reply. Hernandez saw the messages the day she found out her cousin was among nearly 900 U.S. deaths in the Iraq conflict.

Sgt. Jeremy Fischer, 26, of Lincoln, Neb., also died in the July 11 explosion.

Hernandez said she kept in touch with Tarango-Griess by e-mail even though the cousins hadn’t gotten together for nearly five years. Tarango-Griess has two aunts, two uncles and 16 cousins in the Clovis-Portales area.

“Linda’s a hero. She’s the bravest person I know. I admire her and I’ve admired her since we were young. She was successful at everything she did,” Hernandez said.

Even though Hernandez has printed out her cousin’s last e-mails, they remain in her computer.

“I don’t want to delete them,” she said.

The last e-mail Tarango-Griess sent to her cousin on July 6 included a picture of her platoon all sporting running shoes and army T-shirts following a five-mile run called “Desert Dash.”

“None of us won the race, but in our hearts, we are winners, our reward is the self-satisfaction for just finishing the race,” Tarango-Griess wrote.

Hernandez is also the mother of a Marine who served in Iraq for four months early in the war.

“When my son was there, I cried for a week straight, but I never thought anything would happen to Linda. She was just so strong,” Hernandez said.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced for Tarango-Griess, Guard officials said. Tarango-Griess’ family has said a funeral would be held in Hastings, Neb.

Hernandez and her Clovis relatives said they plan to attend the Nebraska funeral.

Tarango-Griess’ husband, Doug Griess, also serves with the Nebraska Army National Guard and is scheduled to go to Iraq within a month or two.

He was given the option to stay home due to his wife’s death, but he decided to go and fight.

Tarango-Griess’ hometown of Sutton has about 1,500 residents.

But there are still more mourners 750 miles away in Clovis.

“Sometimes I’m OK,” Hernandez said, “and sometimes my stomach turns and I get nervous and want to cry out loud.”

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  This one struck closer to me than some.  This individual is the first that is close to where I live. I also remember reffing a game he played in. I cant say he sticks out in my mind which is sad but I did do a game he played in.  John

 

July 26, 2004   The Department of Defense has confirmed that Pvt. 1st Class Torey J. Dantzler of Columbia was killed in Iraq on Thursday.

Dantzler, 22, was killed in Samarra, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated on the side of the road near his convoy vehicle.

His death was posted on the department's Web site in a release dated July 24, but word of his death, which is under military investigation, began circulating Friday in Caldwell Parish.

On Friday a spokesman with the Department of Defense said the DoD would not confirm Dantzler's death until 24 hours after next of kin was notified.

Those who knew the 2000 graduate of Caldwell High School remembered him for his athletic ability, dedication and friendly demeanor.

He was a member of the track and field team and the football team. He was a member of The News-Star's 1999 Northeastern Louisiana High School Football All-District 2-3A first defense team.

"He is one of those you still talk about long after they are gone," said football coach Buster Duplissey. "He holds a special place in our hearts. You couldn't ask for a better kid.

"Torey never caused a problem. He was a hard worker, just an excellent kid."

Classmate Mitch Bratton remembered Dantzler mostly for his friendship.

"We had a real close class, and we all hung out with each other," Bratton said. "Torey always had a joke. I always remember him mentoring the younger kids on the football team. That was how he was."

His aunt, Ella Hearns, said he always brought joy into the lives of their family.

"He was a great soldier, a terrific guy and a great dad," she said. "Most people you talk to in Columbia loved him. He always enjoyed what he did."

Dantzler was assigned to the Army's 66th Transportation Company from Kaiserslautern, Germany. He was deployed to Iraq in January, Hearns said.

Survivors include his wife Serena and two children, Kayla, 22 months, and Torey Jr., 4 months; his mother JoAnn Dantzler and stepfather Charles Moore Sr., and two brothers, Charles Moore Jr. and Ian Dantzler.



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 An Eastern Shore native was killed in Iraq when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded near his vehicle, the Army announced Friday.

Pfc. Samuel R. Bowen, 38, died Wednesday in Samarra, the Defense Department said in a news release. Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Bowen lived in Cleveland but was from Berlin, Md., where he graduated in 1983 from Stephen Decatur High School.

He was assigned to the 216th Engineer Battalion, a unit of the Ohio National Guard that is based in a Cleveland suburb.

Three weeks before his death, Bowen helped rescue a fellow guardsman wounded in a rocket attack. Ron Eaton of Lakewood, Ohio, was carrying a box of Gatorade on June 16 out of a commissary at a military base about 50 miles north of Baghdad when the men came under attack. Eaton, 35, said a grenade knocked both soldiers off their feet and sprayed shrapnel that cut him in the abdomen, liver and arm.

"A second round came in within a second after that, and that round landed behind us," Eaton said. "While I was still laying on the ground, Sam actually grabbed me by the collar and pulled me away from the building."

The attack killed three soldiers and wounded 25 people, including two civilians. Eaton said Bowen was not seriously injured and helped tend to the wounded.

"He was one of the first people to call me after I got out of surgery," he said. "He wanted to hear my voice because he didn't believe that I was OK - he called me his 'battle buddy."'

Eaton, who is recuperating at home, said Bowen was a cook and had managed several restaurants in the Cleveland area. He said the two became close friends.

"He was a big man with a big heart," Eaton said. "He was very intimidating in size, but very soft-spoken and very kind."

Bowen had a wife, Melanie, three children and two stepchildren.

"A lot of people were praying for him," said his wife, Melanie Bowen. "They all wanted him to come home, and I just wanted to thank them for praying for him."

Though Bowen had lived in the Cleveland area with his wife and children for a few years, many of his relatives remained on the Eastern Shore, said his sister, Consuella Bowen.

She remembered her brother as a fun-loving person who kept in contact with his family.

"He always had a smile on his face," Consuella said. "You could never tell when he was having a down day."

It was Bowen's second stint in the military, she said. He had originally enlisted after high school, but later left the service before joining the Army Reserves. National Guard officials said Bowen had been in Iraq since December.

 

It is sad that so many have died.  This is an individual who had already served his country and went back in.  It is sad to lose so many   john

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A memorial service is planned Friday in Germany for a former Paxinos Army captain killed in Iraq.

Capt. Robert Scheetz Jr., 31, was apparently killed by a car bomb while stationed in the Baghdad area.

He and others with him were sleeping at the time. It is not known if he was the only fatality in the bombing, which occurred Sunday night.

His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Scheetz Sr. of Paxinos, were notified at about 9 p.m. Monday, according to Regina Scheetz, Robert Jr.’s grandmother, who lives in the Elysburg area.

The Northumberland County commissioners announced Tuesday that all flags at county office buildings will remain at half-staff in honor of Scheetz.

Scheetz, who lived in Germany, was originally scheduled to leave Iraq in May but his tour was extended until August. He had been in Iraq since May 2003.

Scheetz’s wife, Jennifer, lives in Germany, according to Robyn Danneker of the Danville area, Scheetz’s cousin. Danneker said Scheetz’s body will be flown from Germany to Dover Air Force Base.

"We had the military in common. He was very committed and a very respected officer. The last Christmas before he left for Iraq, he invited military people who had no family to his home for Christmas dinner," said Danneker, who served in Operation Desert Storm.

"He loved the military. He lived to serve it," she said.

The Scheetz family has copies of a January letter given to Scheetz by Maj. Brian McHugh, executive officer of the 1st Battalion 6th Infantry, in which McHugh wrote about what a fine officer Scheetz was.

McHugh wrote of the stellar job Scheetz accomplished as battalion intelligence officer, being responsible for a number of critical missions.

Some of the most important of these were accompanying the commander on raids and search operations, interrogation of detainees, analyzing raw data and processing it into information to develop as enemy targets and developing a local human intelligence network.

"Your son has almost single-handedly established the most productive local intelligence network in all of Baghdad — this is extremely critical because it allows for a level of infiltration or observation of templated targets that we as Americans would never be able to achieve and it prevents us from putting our soldiers in the line of fire unless absolutely necessary," hewrote.

"If and when this grand experiment comes to fruition, it will not be because of the great schemes of the politicians but instead it will be through the sweat and sometimes the blood of men like Robert who are on the streets of Baghdad, daily placing themselves in harm’s way to bring the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to those less fortunate than he," McHugh wrote.

Danneker recalled Scheetz writing that he shared packages sent by her church, Rush Baptist of the Danville area, with members of his platoon She sent him several letters while he was in Iraq.

Regina Scheetz said the last letter she received from her grandson was one thanking her for one of the packages sent by the church.

Scheetz was featured in a Daily Item story, which ran June 8, 2003. Scheetz was shown in two Associated Press photographs with Baghdad resident Ali Radhi and two children. Scheetz was in charge of the unit patrolling a neighborhood in Baghdad.

While visiting his son in Washington, D.C., Mike Schlenker of Selinsgrove came across a photograph of Scheetz while reading The Washington Post.

After arriving back in the area, he was able to reach the elder Scheetz who was surprised to see the picture and grateful someone who didn’t know him went through so much trouble to show him a picture of his son.

Robert Jr. was a 1990 graduate of Shamokin Area High School who attended flight school and later joined the Army. He was stationed several places, including Alabama, before being stationed in Germany nearly four years ago.

Scheetz was the oldest of the Scheetz children. The Scheetzs have a daughter, Hope, who at the time of the interview, was an assistant chef at Bucknell University.

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STANWOOD - Cody Calavan could have avoided the danger.

The U.S. Marine Corps machine gunner could have told the military his family had suffered too much for him to go to Iraq.

His mother died of breast cancer in 1997, and his younger brother Joey, 15, was killed by a drunken driver only nine months ago.

Under military rules, Calavan, 19, could have turned down the Iraq assignment because he was the sole surviving son.

But Calavan, who'd had "Semper Fidelis" tattooed across his shoulders after graduating from boot camp, "wanted to stick with the guys he'd trained with," said stepsister Kalee Calavan Craig, 23, of Marysville. "He believed there was a price for freedom ... he didn't even consider not going."

His family "respected his decision," Calavan Craig said. "We all felt like it would be OK; he would be OK. We didn't think we could handle losing another one."

Calavan's family learned Saturday that he'd died in an explosion in Al Anbar province in Iraq.

Few details were known about the explosion Tuesday, except that two other Marines had been killed and that Calavan died after receiving medical treatment, his family said.

The U.S. Department of Defense would only say that Calavan, who'd left for Iraq in February, was killed in "hostile action." Calavan was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, Calif.

As of Tuesday, 806 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq last year.

Calavan was the second serviceman from Snohomish County to be killed in Iraq. Justin W. Hebert of Silvana died Aug. 1 when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the Humvee he was driving. He was 20.

Also killed in Iraq was Mariner High School graduate Todd Drobnick, 35, who worked for San Diego, Calif., defense contractor Titan Corp.

Calavan, who'd joined the Marines in June 2003 after graduating from Lake Stevens High School, strongly supported the war in Iraq, said his father, David Calavan.

"He believed this was a war that needed to be fought," said David Calavan, who talked to his son a week before he died. "He wasn't sorry he joined up, to the end."

His older son's death is easier to accept than the Aug. 29 crash that killed Joey, their father said.

"This one is easier because it was a choice. It was something that needed to be done; we both felt that. He paid a price we knew he could have," David Calavan said.

Cody Calavan was considering going to college and becoming a police officer after he finished his military service, his father said. He expected to come home for a break in September or October.

"We continually prayed for him," stepmother Pam Calavan said. "We were all very proud of him."

Calavan told his family he'd seen some intense fighting, including a close call in Ramadi, Iraq, on April 6 when 13 Marines he went on patrol with died in an attack there.

Calavan got a bullet hole in his pocket, but wasn't hurt.

"He prayed hard that night," said Kalee Calavan Craig, who'd sent him a Marine Corps Bible.

His family, who gathered at Calavan's parents' home in Stanwood on Tuesday, said Calavan loved to tease his family. "He had a great sense of humor," stepbrother Chris Craig said.

Calavan also enjoyed wrestling, soccer, his car and watching movies - he even brought his DVD player to Iraq.

But he always put his friends and family first, they said. "He had a huge heart; he would have helped anybody," Calavan Craig said.

The last time she spoke with him was a month before he died.

"I told him he needs to hurry up and come home safe," Calavan Craig said. "Because I didn't want to lose another brother."

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It is with regret I wasnt able to locate a picture of this very young 18 year old female soldier.  She died May 20th in an ambush.  May God Bless her and her family...john

 

 

Her mother and grandmother did not want her to go to Iraq -- did not want her to enlist in the military at all -- but Leslie Jackson believed she had found her calling.

"There's a war going on," the older women had worried.

"I'll be all right," Jackson assured them. "I'll be back."

Now that memory is especially poignant, as they and others mourn the death of the 18-year-old soldier from Richmond, killed last week in Baghdad when the vehicle she was driving struck a roadside bomb.

Believed to be the youngest soldier from the Washington region to die in Iraq, Pfc. Jackson was her mother's only child, a bright-eyed teenager with grit and ambition. She was a leader in the JROTC program at George Wythe High School of the Arts in Richmond. For two years she was commander of the program's 200 students, school officials said.

"She knew what she wanted to do," said her mother, Viola.

Jackson graduated from Wythe in 2003 and landed at Army boot camp before her 18th birthday. After training to be a truck driver, she was assigned to Fort Hood, Tex., where she served with the 1st Cavalry Division. In March, the unit traveled to Kuwait, then Iraq.

In e-mails from Iraq, Jackson wrote her high school principal, Earl M. Pappy, about long days and episodes of mortar fire, about times when she felt a little afraid and of how her sergeant had noted an admirable toughness about her.

At Wythe, Pappy said, "she was a shining star. She was 18 and she was highly respected." He added: "She was a model student. She was a very positive person. If I had a school full of Leslie Jacksons, I would go to sleep at night."

Short but strong, "she walked like a soldier" and wore her uniform proudly, recalled Ronnie Fleming, one of her high school English teachers. "Leslie loved poetry," he said. "She had a way of seeing deeper things than a lot of students in my classroom."

Her aunt, Pearl Roberts, said the teenager had not been sure what she wanted to do with her life until she discovered the JROTC program. "She was very good at it," she said, and Jackson believed that she was "military material" and that the military offered a promising future.

"She wanted to make a difference in the world," Roberts said. "She didn't want to just have children and be in the system. She wanted to do better. . . . She wanted a life and an education and a good job."

In one demonstration of that faith, Jackson mailed her mother a camouflage-covered Bible during boot camp. In it, she inscribed: "To: My Mommy, From: Your Lil Soldier. Trying to make the best of life. To show you. I can make the world come to me. I love you much."

Her aunt's voice broke as she read the words. "She was just so sweet," she said. "She was always kind, always good. . . . She wanted to better her life."

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I go to a web site for the info on those lost over in the war. The site has all listed for all troops over there that have been lost.  By coalition numbers the number is up over 900.  What is tragic is the number of very young men and women who are more than just babes.  Too bad it cant be settled politically and that we are so hated over there.  Do I understand it, No I dont. 

Anyhow just wanted to make this site known as you filter it by country, rank, sex, cause of death, and a few more ways.  When you see a soldier or sailor this next week attempt to let them know you appreciate what they are doing.   john

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Attorney Fern Holland, 33, center, is pictured in this undated photo in Iraq released by her family. Holland, another American civilian and a translator were killed in Iraq Tuesday, March 9, 2004 after several gunmen posing as Iraqi police officers stopped her vehicle at a makeshift checkpoint near the town of Hillah, about 35 miles south of Baghdad. As a member of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Holland helped write the women's rights section of the new Iraqi constitution, family members said.The men at left and right in the photo are not identified. (AP Photo)

 

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Lawyer Fern Holland went to Iraq to help the nation's women: She investigated human-rights violations, set up conferences and assisted in writing the women's rights section of the new constitution.

"If I die, know that I'm doing precisely what I want to be doing," Holland wrote in an e-mail to a friend on Jan. 21.

Holland was one of three civilians killed Tuesday after several gunmen posing as Iraqi police officers stopped her vehicle at a makeshift checkpoint near the town of Hillah, about 35 miles south of Baghdad.

Holland and a second victim were the first U.S. civilians working for the U.S. occupation authority to be killed in Iraq. The identity of a third victim, a translator, was not immediately released.

Holland's family believes she was targeted by assassins because of her work, which included opening women's centers around Iraq.

"She believed in freedom. She believed that every man and woman born should enjoy the right of freedom," her sister Vi Holland said.

L. Paul Bremer, the top administrator in Iraq, has requested that the FBI investigate the slayings. It was not yet known whether the gunmen were specifically targeting coalition officials.

Holland, a 1996 graduate of the University of Tulsa College of Law, worked at two law firms in Tulsa before joining the Peace Corps and traveling to Namibia.

She returned to the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but did not stay long.

Tulsa attorney Stephen Rodolf, who kept in touch with Holland through e-mail, said she seemed to be aware of growing threats to her safety.

"We stand out, and those who dislike us know precisely when we come to town," she wrote to him.

Her job required her to travel almost every day on highways where snipers and roadside bombs lurked. And yet, she asked to travel with an unarmed escort because she felt the high security around her was a barrier to her work, he said.

"She was an extraordinary person who honestly wanted to help people," Rodolf said. "Anybody who knew her would tell you that."

 

The family of an Oklahoma woman executed by terrorists in Iraq believes she was targeted because of her work on the Iraqi constitution.

Fern Holland was a civilian employee of the Department of Defense. She was shot to death by men disguised as Iraqi police in an attack south of Baghdad. News on 6 anchor Craig Day was the only Tulsa reporter to talk with Holland's brother Wednesday night.

Since his sister's death, Joe Holland has been looking at old photos and reliving memories. He says Fern was always willing to help others, especially those in need. "The world was a better place with her in it. There are people like that."

Fern Holland's death made headlines. But it's her courageous life that her friends want remembered. News on 6 anchor Terry Hood sat down Thursday with some of Fern's former co-workers.

The mood at Tulsa law firm Conner and Winters was very somber Thursday. Fern Holland left the firm several ago, but still corresponded with several friends there. They say Fern knew she was in danger, but stayed in Iraq because she believed she could make a difference.

Fern Holland was described by her former boss as a rising star at Conner and Winters, but she left to pursue another calling, the Peace Corps. She lived a life of service, working as a teacher in southern Africa and establishing a legal aid clinic for refugees in Guinea.

It was her belief in the rights of all people, particularly women, which led her to Iraq. Jim Green, her former boss, says Fern started out investigating human rights violations in northern Iraq and ended up working to include women in Iraq's new government.

It was a mission her friends believe cost Fern Holland her life. "Certainly its our belief that its these efforts as we all know are very unpopular with certain elements of Iraqi society that marked her and put a target on her."

Friend Susan Dittrich: "She said always remember I'm doing what I love and I am where I need to be."

By all accounts Fern Holland was an amazing woman, and touched lives literally all over the world.

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Another soldier has died and as I can not list all of them, I try to bring to you a few of them.  It is a senseless death.  Mark was in the National Guard and this shows you that being a member of the Guard in no means brings you any closer to safety.  john

 

The family of Mark Joseph Kasecky is proud that he chose to serve his country in Iraq, but fears his death has been in vain.

Kasecky, 20, of Stowe, died over the weekend when a bomb exploded in or near his vehicle, relatives said after being informed of his death Monday.

"We're fighting a losing battle," said his sister, Veronica Horton, of Wilkinsburg.

"How many more deaths will it take before they realize that it's not worth it? My brother wasn't married and had no children. All we got are our memories. It's not enough," Horton said as she and others grieved at the home of her mother, Emily Arnold, on Broadway Avenue.

"It's not fair. It was a senseless death," Horton said.

Bob Danenas, who is married to Kasecky's aunt, said, "We support our troops. We want to know why we're over there, trying to free people who don't want to be free."

Arnold said simply that she is filled with a bewildering mix of emotions: Pride, anger and pain.

Relatives said Kasecky, a private first class in the Army National Guard, had escaped death or serious injury twice since arriving in Iraq in January.

Several members of Kasecky's company were injured in a bus accident. Kasecky, who was originally scheduled to be on the bus, apparently was on a plane when the accident occurred, they said.

About two months ago, his bulletproof vest stopped three bullets. Kasecky escaped with lacerations and rib injuries, they said.

Kasecky called his mother in mid-April to say that he would be coming home on two weeks leave. It was the last time he talked to her. Arnold said she was told the leave was canceled because of continuing hostilities.

Phone calls were scarce, but Horton said Kasecky managed to call her Friday.

"He said, 'It's crazy over here.' He said it was scary. He said he was doing OK, and he joked with my kids. He said he loved us all and missed us all," Horton said.

"I told him, 'We miss you. Be careful. Keep your head up.' "

Arnold said a chaplain and an Army sergeant told her Kasecky was on patrol when a bomb blew up his Humvee.

Defense Department officials in Washington, D.C., said last night that no information about Kasecky or the circumstances surrounding his death had been released.

Kasecky, who attended Sto-Rox High School, joined the Army National Guard about two years ago and was in a decontamination unit, relatives said.

"He loved playing football and basketball," said his sister, Crystal Monroe, of North Huntingdon, Westmoreland County.

Horton described him as a "die-hard Steelers fan." His aunt, Patty Danenas, called him "a big jokester."

Another aunt, Roberta "Robin" Alexander, of McKees Rocks, said, "He was a very good uncle to his 11 nieces and nephews."

A year ago, Kasecky sent his family pictures of him in uniform, standing beside an American flag.

"Hey, man," he wrote on the back of one. "Just thought you'd like a picture of a real, true American soldier boy!"

Monroe said her brother always kept a positive outlook. "If he knew you were down and out, he'd make you laugh," she said.

Kasecky also is survived by another sister, Karen Kasecky, of Gaithersburg, Md., and two brothers, John and Shawn, both of McKees Rocks.

"Mark will always be remembered and loved very much by his whole family and friends," Horton said.

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Thoughts of the 1996 Canutillo High School graduate, an Army sergeant who died Saturday in a mortar attack, also touched off bittersweet memories for former classmates and educators, who remembered a sprightly, three-sport athlete who always wore an electrifying grin and won over people with her optimistic attitude.

"She had this cheerful laugh that really distinguished her," said Lucy Piñeda, a Canutillo teacher who competed in track and graduated from high school with Rubalcava. "And she was always a very determined young lady. Whatever she set out to do, she accomplished."

Because the Canutillo Independent School District is itself a tight-knit community, many teachers familiar with Rubalcava and her siblings will struggle with the news of her loss, said John Kessinger, her former high-school principal.

"It's rough hearing about the loss of any soldier, but when it's someone you know it's even more difficult," said Kessinger, now an associate superintendent with the district. "Isela was one of those well-rounded students that never got into trouble, so she was quiet. But once you got to know her, you were real glad that you did."

Neighbors living along Sixta Drive are pooling their money to buy a flower arrangement for pending memorial services and for a 70-foot U.S. flag to give to the Rubalcava family.

Displaying the nation's colors is a way to help honor Rubalcava and show support for those soldiers still serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Yolanda Dovenbarger, a 30-year resident of the area.

"Losing (Isela) is a big loss," Dovenbarger said. "She was out there doing hard work for her country and people should do what they can to respect that."


It is with respect to these Americans that I continue to add some so they might not be forgotten.  These men and women have given what this journal is titled.  They gave all.  May God rest thier souls and comfort thier families.  May the Angels in heaven be with them.   john







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