LCpl. Aaron Boyles, U.S.M.C (KIA)

(reprinted from the Mercury News, October 7, 2004)

Family buries slain Marine
NEWARK HIGH GRAD, KILLED DURING FINAL MISSION IN IRAQ, LEAVES BEHIND WIFE AND UNBORN SON

Brandon Aaron Boyles will never meet his father.

He will never know Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron Robert Boyles, the wild-boy-turned-Marine, whose 25th birthday was today. Instead of a birthday/welcome home party, his family buried him Wednesday at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno.

Boyles died Sept. 24 in Iraq. His baby boy, due to be born in 10 days, was a large bump under his mother's black dress at the funeral in Hayward's Chapel of the Chimes Mortuary-Cemetery. Boyles learned that his wife was pregnant with a boy when he was overseas and chose the name Brandon, simply because he liked it. The middle name -- Aaron -- is in honor of his dad.

Boyles was scheduled to return from Iraq on Oct. 10, Sunday, before he called his wife to say one more mission would delay his homecoming.

When he did arrive home, it was in a flag-draped coffin.

Boyles died in an explosion while riding in a Humvee with his unit in the Al-Anbar province of Iraq.

More than 250 mourners attended Boyles' funeral, where his wife and mother never stopped sobbing.

Strength from family

``He was a man of uncommon strength and character,'' said Marine Capt. Ron Warfield, who at one time was Boyles' platoon commander in Iraq. ``His strength comes from his family. I see it in the faces of his sisters and brothers. In the voices of his cousins, aunts and uncles. I see it in the eyes of his mother and father. And most of all, I see it in the face of his wife.''

Prabha Boyles, 25, a native of the Fiji Islands, was too distraught to speak at her husband's funeral. She met him two years ago at Union City's Wal-Mart, where they both worked. But one day, her son will hear the story of how his father often kissed her belly over the phone from Iraq.

``I told him I couldn't do it alone,'' Prabha said a few days before the funeral after she moved from the military base in Twentynine Palms in Southern California to Hayward to live with her parents. ``His job was to help me focus and help me breathe. I don't know how I'm supposed to do this.''

Boyles enlisted in the Marines in December 2002 and was a driver for the Headquarters and Service Company Regimental Combat Team 7, 1st Marine Division. He spent part of his senior year in high school in Newark, graduating from Newark Memorial High School, living with his mother, Wanda Kealaiki, who also was too grief-stricken to speak at the funeral.

Earlier this week, his mother said Boyles spent a good deal of his teenage years very angry: angry she was diagnosed with a terminal illness that he could do nothing about. Angry that when he was 14 years old, she and his stepfather moved from the family's hometown of Hood River, Ore., for jobs in the Bay Area as Wal-Mart managers. Angry he hadn't seen or talked to his biological father for a long time.

Kealaiki, a native of Oahu, said the Marines had transformed her son into a good man. He straightened up, shed his bulk and lost his scruffy goatee. He seemed to be letting go of his anger.

``He used to not care about anybody,'' Kealaiki said. ``The Marines made him open up.''

Boyles and Prabha were married July 4, 2003, on a rare weekend off for Boyles. At the funeral service, photographs of their Reno wedding, with Boyles dressed proudly in his blue Marine uniform, were displayed on a screen against the backdrop of some of his favorite country music.

Turning life around

It didn't matter to Alex Gallardo that he had never legally adopted Boyles as his son. Together with Boyles' mother for 14 years, the native Chilean still calls Boyles his ``son,'' in the present tense, and considers Kealaiki's two daughters his own. Gallardo said Boyles drank to excess when he was younger, and they had several long discussions about his turning his life around.

``He needed discipline,'' Gallardo said. ``After he was in the Marines, he started calling me `sir.' ''

But Anna Schneider, 25, who still lives in Oregon and was Boyles' close confidant, said earlier this week there were things the Marines never changed about her baby brother. He never lost his love of snowboarding, playing football and listening to the odd mix of rap and country music. She said she also hoped that one day Brandon Aaron will meet Boyles' other son, Derik, 5, who lives with Boyles' old girlfriend in Oregon.