Sacrifice multiplied by six
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune
The Stryker battalion known as The Patriots had lost six soldiers in its 14 months in Iraq.
Then two attacks in three days doubled that number, even as the troops of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment drew within weeks of coming home.
The battalion and the rest of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Lewis paid their respects Wednesday to the six men lost in those bombings July 31 and Aug. 2 in Baghdad.
Speakers at a memorial ceremony likened the sacrifice to that of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence.
They also turned to Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Abraham Lincoln for perspective on their loss.
Spc. Zachariah J. Gonzalez, Spc. Charles T. Heinlein Jr., and Spc. Alfred H. Jairala were killed July 31 when their Stryker was hit by a bomb in the Dora district of Baghdad.
Staff Sgt. Fernando Santos, Spc. Cristian Rojas-Gallego and Spc. Eric D. Salinas were killed in a similar attack Aug. 2.
“It was a rough week; we are operating in parts of Baghdad that have been dangerous for a long while,” their battalion commander, Lt. Col. Barry Huggins, wrote in an e-mail before the ceremony. “Things are relatively better lately, but this week was a stark reminder that we can ill afford to be complacent as we near the end of our tour.”
Another of the brigade’s combat units, the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, is likewise coping with catastrophic loss so late in the deployment.
The brigade will hold another memorial ceremony Friday morning for four soldiers from 1-23 who were killed Aug. 6 when a booby-trapped house they were clearing in Baqouba exploded.
The brigade has been in Iraq 14 months in a tour that was to have lasted a year but was extended to 15 months this spring as part of the U.S. surge.
The six men remembered Wednesday between them were father to 11 children and hailed from Texas, Georgia, Michigan, Indiana and Florida.
Maj. Kyle Marsh, the brigade’s rear detachment commander, compared them to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, in that “each actually joined a cause much larger than himself … and pledged their lives and fortunes and sacred honor with that signature.”
The six “were not rich men, they were not famous, they were pretty common American boys, who understood the world situation and the risks associated with that piece of paper that they signed.”
Huggins said the rest of his battalion has pressed on in Dora despite its losses. Attacks and killings in the district have dropped dramatically since the battalion’s arrival, he said, and soldiers are working now on improvements such as water and sewer projects and trying to reconcile sectarian differences.
“We will turn our mission over to another Stryker battalion soon, and we’re all ready to do it,” Huggins wrote to The News Tribune. “We will leave sadder, maybe wiser, and proud of what we have done for people who will never know our names.”
Six dedicated men gone before their timeThe six soldiers remembered Wednesday were all assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, a part of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
Gonzalez, Heinlein and Jairala, from the battalion’s B Company, were killed in a July 31 attack on their Stryker in Baghdad’s Dora District.
Santos, Rojas-Gallego and Salinas, from A Company, were killed in the same neighborhood two days later.
Spc. Zachariah J. Gonzalez
Gonzalez, 23, of Indianapolis, enlisted in 2002 in his hometown, first as a cook in the Army Reserve. Then he switched to the active-duty infantry and was assigned to Fort Lewis in December 2004.
He made the change because “he wanted to serve his country in a bigger way,” his uncle, Manuel Gonzalez, told the Indianapolis Star. “He wanted to be there in the front, and that’s the decision he made.”
Staff Sgt. John Mullins, Gonzalez’s squad leader, said buddies teased him about his past as an Army cook after he burned some ribs for them one day in Mosul. They always figured he had to have been the class clown in school.
“He was always doing something to make us laugh, no matter how much it was sucking,” Mullins said, in remarks read Wednesday by Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Kissler.
Family members said Gonzalez looked forward to coming home and going to work with his father in the family’s landscaping business.
He is survived by his parents, Benedict and Laura Gonzalez of Indianapolis.
Spc. Charles T. Heinlein, Jr.,
Heinlein, 23, of Hemlock, Mich., joined the Army in September 2005 in Lansing and reported to Fort Lewis the following February.
Charlie, as his family called him, “was a trouble-maker; he was someone who would always find ways to irritate people, but he also was the kind of guy who thought of others,” his father, Thomas Heinlein, told the Saginaw (Mich.) News.
He encouraged his family back home to send care packages to a soldier who never got any. He told his family that his unit was doing good work in Iraq, and talked a lot about the people he’d meet at schools and hospitals.
Heinlein “was our go-to guy. He was always volunteering for the dirty jobs that nobody else wanted,” Staff Sgt. John Mullins said Wednesday. “He had his own distinct personality, and he said he was definitely a little different than most normal people. … But as a grenadier, he couldn’t be beat.”
His father said he would be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
He is survived by his wife, Jessica, of Tacoma; his parents, Charles and Nina Heinein of Michigan; and his sister, Jody.
Spc. Alfred H. Jairala
Jairala, 29, of Hialeah, Fla., enlisted in September 2004 in Miami and arrived at Fort Lewis the following January.
Born in New York, he moved to Florida in 1999 and worked as a security guard in Miami Beach before deciding to join the Army. Family members told the Miami Herald they tried to talk him out of it, but he wasn’t hearing it.
“It was something he wanted to do,” his sister Jessica told the newspaper. “There was no stopping him when he wanted something.”
Soldiers remembered him as versatile and willing to step up to whatever job needed to be done, especially when other members of the squad were home on leave.
“He could drive a Stryker with the best of them,” said Staff Sgt. John Mullins.
Older than most of the other soldiers, he was often sought out by others for advice about family and life in general.
“He was a big brother to our younger guys,” Mullins said.
Jairala is survived by his wife, Margarita, of Kent; and his children, Sebastian, Cameron and Jasmine.
Staff Sgt. Fernando Santos
Santos, 29, of San Antonio, joined the Army in October 1997 and served at Fort Campbell, Ky., and in Korea before arriving at Fort Lewis in October 2000.
He was a veteran of the 3rd Brigade’s first deployment and was a squad leader. He had an innate sense for when one of his soldiers was down and in need of a lift, said Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Kissler.
“‘Hey, baby,’ was how (he) would greet you,” Kissler said. “He could just look at you and know if you were having a bad day or were sad. He was a big brother to most in the company.”
Family members told the San Antonio Express-News that Santos was proud to have achieved the same Army rank as his father, Gilbert.
He got home for the February birth of his youngest child and was a great father and husband, said his wife, Adonia.
“He was the best thing that ever happened to me,” she told the Express-News. “He was always, always, wanting to make me happy.”
Santos is survived by his wife and his children, Paul, Daniel, Iliana and Victor; his father; his six brothers; and his sister.
Spc. Cristian Rojas-Gallego
Rojas-Gallego, 24, of Loganville, Ga., joined the Army in summer 2006 after serving four years in the Marine Corps, during which he was deployed three times to Iraq.
He arrived at Fort Lewis last September and was later sent to Iraq to join his new comrades in the 2-3 Infantry. He quietly set about fitting in with his new squadmates, said Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Kissler.
“He loved his wife and children deeply and spoke of them often,” he said. “And he took a lot of pride in his job. … Rojas was one of the hardest-working soldiers we’d ever seen.”
His wife, Megan, told the Walton (Ga.) Tribune she spoke to her husband via webcam about six hours before he was killed.
“And just before I got off the phone I was crying, and he told me I needed to be strong and he would be home soon,” she told the Tribune. “I know there must be a reason. We might not know it now, but everything happens for a reason.
“He died a hero. He died to make us safe.”
Rojas-Gallego is survived by his wife; his three sons, Raymond, Tyler and Eric; and his parents.
Spc. Eric D. Salinas
Salinas, 25, of Houston, joined the Army in September 2004 and arrived at Fort Lewis in January 2005.
Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Kissler said the soldier “was hardworking, never afraid to get dirty, and always found a sense of purpose in what he was doing.”
He was always saying Houston, Texas: “He was extremely proud to represent where he came from, and often talked about his mom and how much he loved her,” the sergeant said.
Friends told the Houston Chronicle he was looking forward to coming home and taking his son, Anthony, out for pizza and to the park.
His friend Oscar Ordonez told the Chronicle he’ll make sure the boy knows what his father did.
“I guess with time, I will tell him the kind of father he was; he died for his country and serving us,” Ordonez said.
Salinas is survived by his son; his father, Domingo Salinas; and his mother, Juanita DeLeon.
