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In Memoriam |
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In Memoriam |
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Sgt. Juan Calderon, Jr., U.S.M.C (KIA)
Web Posted: 08/14/2004 12:00 AM CDT
WESLACO — Family and friends of slain Marine Sgt. Juan Calderon Jr., remembered him Friday as a devoted Cowboys fan who liked playing basketball and savored the hominy in menudo.
But most of all, he was passionate about the Marine Corps.
"Right before I would go up to give him a hug he would stand at attention and just say, 'Sgt. Juan Calderon, U.S. Marine Corps. Sir!'" said his brother Juan Sanchez, 34, from Muleshoe, as he stuck his chest out. "And then he would hug me."
Calderon, 26, a rifleman based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., was killed in an explosion Aug. 2, a month after arriving in Iraq. He is the sixth serviceman from the Rio Grande Valley to die in Gulf War II.
On Friday, Sanchez reiterated his brother's commitment to the Marines during a jam-packed funeral service officiated by Bishop Raymundo Peņa at San Martin De Porres Catholic Church.
"The death of any young man would move us, but it moves us much more when his death is a fruit of war, the fruit of human weakness that comes from original sin," Peņa said.
Sanchez gave special thanks to those who saluted from the roadside as the casket was transported earlier in the week from McAllen.
From the church, a long procession of cars and trucks traveled north up Texas Avenue, past an orange grove, a flat field of sorghum and a sign held by three woman standing in the sun that read: "God Bless You Juan."
At Highland Memorial Park cemetery, Rosalva Kuhn of Laguna Vista and Juanita Anguiano of Los Fresnos walked beside each other toward the fresh gravesite.
Both of their sons were killed in Iraq. Kuhn's son Rey David Cuervo, 24, died Dec. 28 and Edward Anguiano, 24, died March 23.
"I don't feel alone," Kuhn said. "This really helped me."
Marine pallbearers carried the flag-draped casket to a green tent where family members cried. About 750 people huddled around the tent and under nearby trees to escape the heat.
As a mariachi band played "Adios Soldado," a few veterans silently protested the war by putting fliers under windshield wipers on all the cars parked at the cemetery.
"It's time to get out of there with pride," said Juan Torres, 56, of Veterans for Peace. "We've proved our point."
Calderon was going to be a father. His wife, Ana Maria, is eight months pregnant.
He is survived by his father, Juan Calderon Sr., who lives here, and his mother, Maria Bernal, who lives in Minnesota. He had three brothers and four sisters who live in Texas and Minnesota.
Calderon graduated from Weslaco High School in 1996 and immediately went to a Marine recruiter.
Assistant Principal Alma Barbosa taught Calderon government and remembers him as quiet young man.
"Any time you would look at him, he popped a smile," she said.
She said many graduates from the school end up in the military. The most famous is Harlon Block, who helped raise the flag on Mount Suribachi in Iwo Jima during World War II. He was killed a month later.
"There's no help here in the Valley for people," said Gumaro Trevino, 45, a deliveryman wearing a black T-shirt with "Marine Tough and Proud of it" printed on the front and a picture of him and his son, a soldier, printed on the back.
"There's no other way to go."
But the deaths are taking their toll in this community.
At the back of a funeral home chapel here Thursday night, near the end of a rosary service for Calderon, a young man stood and wept.
A boy brought him paper napkins.
Asked how he knew the slain Marine, he said he didn't.
"Actually, I just work here, and it's hard, you know. It's just sad," said Ruben Zuniga, 20, admitting this is the second time in seven months he's lost composure on the job