Community gathers to remember third high school graduate killed in Iraq war
BY MARTIN C. EVANS
STAFF WRITER
October 29, 2004
In the school auditorium at Brentwood High School Thursday, the voices of the student
choir rose and fell in song. On any other night, they might have been practicing for the
school's upcoming winter concert.
But Thursday night was a somber occasion. The Brentwood community gathered to memorialize
the third student to have been slain in battle in Iraq or Afghanistan.
They came to remember Lance Cpl. Ramon Mateo, 20, a fresh-faced youth who graduated from
the school just two years ago, joined the Marines and was called to war. Mateo was killed
Sept. 24 when his convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device.
"We've got to give our props to him," said Anthony Torres, 20, a classmate of
Mateo's who gave up an evening of clubbing to attend the ceremony. "He was my
boy."
"I give a lot of respect to Tom O'Brien because he made this happen," said
another classmate, Tommy Finnerty, 20, referring to the school's principal who organized
the event. "People who didn't know before, know him know."
The school plans to add Mateo's photograph to those of Cpl. Raheen Heighter and Sgt.
Michael Esposito, which hang in the hang in the school's main lobby.
Heighter, a member of the class of 2000, was the first Brentwood alum killed since
President George W. Bush sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. Heighter died July 24, 2003,
when his patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
Esposito, who graduated in 1999, was killed March 18, when he came under fire while
searching a mountainous region of Afghanistan that has seen a re-emergence of Taliban
activity.
Brentwood is a blue-collar neighborhood, where American flags and yellow ribbons testify
to a sense of patriotism and links to military service that run deep here.
Both Mateo and Esposito spent time in Brentwood's Reserve Officer's Training Program,
which helps prepare students interested in pursuing military careers and typically enrolls
about 130 children each year.
The ceremony drew about about 400 students, faculty and community members, including
veterans and local politicians. Members of Mateo's family, including his parents and his
wife, sat on stage before the audience, often blinking back tears.
Glen Rivera, Mateo's brother-in-law who has served as a family spokesman, said the family
still struggles with grief. "You don't accept it," Rivera said. "You just
learn to live with it."
Heighter's mother, Cathy Heighter, who addressed the audience during the more than
hour-long program, spoke of pride with pain. "Yes, we honor them," she said.
"Yes, we are proud of them, what they stood for. But we don't want another picture on
the wall. Not another one of our children."
CWO Andrew Arnold, U.S.M.C (NCD)