HM3 David Moreno, U.S.N. (NCD)

(reprinted from the Lincoln NB Journal Star, July 16, 2003)

BY BILLY SMUCK / Lincoln Journal Star

Holly Moreno was writing the second page of a letter to her brother David, who was serving in Iraq, when the phone rang.

The man on the line was with the U.S. Navy, and he asked to speak to David's parents.

They weren't home.

Concerned, Holly asked whether something had happened to David.

But the somber voice in her ear could not, would not say.

Later she learned that David, a 26-year-old petty officer 3rd class, a 1995 graduate of Lincoln Southeast High School, died in Al Hamishiyah, Iraq, on Thursday.

He was killed by a nonhostile gunshot wound, said Navy Cmdr. Dan Keesee from the Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla.

Holly Moreno said her family had been told by military officials that David was assigned to a group of Marines. As they were putting away their weapons he was accidentally shot in the face.

The family was told he died instantly.

Holly Moreno said her brother, "D.J." as he was often called, was serving as a Navy corpsman, or medical technician, for his Marine unit.

Navy Lt. Ryan Fitzgerald said Moreno's death was under investigation.

Holly said David had planned to leave the Navy in 2004, attend medical school and study pediatrics.

Moreno was the second-oldest of four children including Sharlotte, 28, Holly, 21, and David B. Moreno Jr., 19.

They live in Spring Valley, Calif., as do their parents, David B. and Yolanda Moreno Sr.

The Morenos lived in Lincoln for four years, Holly said, and they lived for a few years in Gering, where they have several family members.

David's aunt Carmen, of Gering, said his body would be sent back to Gering within two weeks, where funeral and burial services will take place.

"The whole family is taking it very hard," said another aunt, Barbara Lopez of Gering.

Many of his uncles are involved in law enforcement, including Peter Moreno, an investigator for the Nebraska State Patrol, and Alex Moreno, an investigator with the Scotts Bluff County Attorney's Office.

Amanda Mitchell of Lincoln said she met David seven years ago while working at McDonald's, 1141 W. Bond Road.

"He would always ask everybody how their mom was doing," she said. "He was close with the families of the people he was friends with."

Mitchell, 24, described David as sarcastic and happy-go-lucky.

She said she, Moreno and some other former employees had remained friends over the years.

"He wasn't exactly the Navy type," she said. "But we all supported him when he joined."

Moreno joined the Navy on Jan. 7, 1998, and took basic and medical training in Chicago, said Lt. Cmdr. Brauna Carl, a Navy spokeswoman.

Moreno then took advanced medical training before being stationed for three years at a naval hospital in Guam.

He had been presented a Navy-Marine Corps Achievement medal for individual valor, Carl said.

David's sister Sharlotte said Friday she was disappointed by the apparent lack of importance her brother had in the eyes of one TV journalist. The journalist said Thursday had been a quiet day for the U.S. military in the Middle East -- only one sailor had been killed.

"It wasn't a quiet day here," she said as she wept.

Moreno is the third person with extensive Nebraska ties to have been killed in Iraq.

Marine Capt. Travis Ford, 30, a native of Ogallala, died in an April helicopter crash about 30 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Nathaniel Caldwell Jr., 27, a 1999 graduate of Peru State College, was killed in May in Baghdad when the vehicle in which he was riding rolled while responding to a civilian call. He was a tank mechanic.