.Staff Sgt. Alex Jimenez, killed in Iraq, buried
After Army Staff Sgt. Alex Jimenez disappeared more than a year ago in Iraq, his father, Andy Jimenez, received metal bracelets inscribed with his son's name and "POW-MIA" from a prisoner of war advocacy group, Rolling Thunder.
Yesterday, the father held out the bracelets as he stood in front of his son's coffin at Long Island National Cemetery, Pinelawn.
"This was given to me ... to give to you when you return," Andy Jimenez said in Spanish, his voice shaking. "Well, now you're home, so here, I'll give them to you."
Jimenez placed the bracelets next to three red roses on the wood coffin, his last gift to his oldest son and the conclusion of 14 anguished months of dread and hope for the family.
Sgt. Alex Jimenez, of Corona, Queens, was 25 on May 12, 2007, when his unit was attacked about 20 miles south of Baghdad near the village of Al Taqa, an area known to soldiers as the Triangle of Death. He was captured along with two other soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, and for more than a year, his family waited for news.
Their hopes were dashed July 10, when the Army told them Jimenez's remains had been found along with one of the other captured soldiers'.
Yesterday, during a funeral Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church in Corona, Jimenez was heralded as a hero and defender of the defenseless, an idealistic young man who saw military service as a means to help others.
His family could not conceal their grief or their pride.
"He was only 25. He wasn't supposed to die. But when he was alive, he held his head up high," his cousin, Braulio Duran Jr., 21, rapped as a photo montage of Jimenez was played at the church, showing him first as a carefree child and later as a grim-faced soldier in Baghdad.
Another cousin, Raymond Kairus, said he once asked Jimenez why he joined the military.
"I know it might sound kind of corny," Kairus recalled Jimenez saying. "But I grew up watching cartoons like Superman and Batman ... I can't put on a cape and fly, but I'm going to do the next closest thing."
In his homily, the Rev. Thomas Healy read a letter Jimenez wrote to an Army recruiter as a senior in high school. "If I ever get recruited, I want to fight for the innocent who cannot fight for themselves," Jimenez wrote.
Brig. Gen. Michael Harrison, the commander of Fort Drum, said Jimenez was "so serious about helping Iraqis that he took it upon himself to learn the Arabic language."
Jimenez - who was born in New York and split his childhood between Queens, Massachusetts and the Dominican Republic - was well-known in his Corona neighborhood. About 200 mourners gathered on the concrete steps outside the church, holding American flags and wearing black and white ribbons. Later, nearly 100 climbed onto three buses headed for Pinelawn and the burial.
At the cemetery, six members of the 10th Mountain Division in green dress uniforms carried the coffin to a gazebo for a prayer service. Harrison knelt and presented American flags to Jimenez's father, his mother, Maria Duran, and his widow, Yaderlin.
Many openly wept when soldiers performed a 21-gun salute and a bugler played "Taps." Jimenez's younger brother, Andy, hugged the coffin and cried, "No, no, no."
Standing nearby was Gordon Dibler, whose son, Army Spc. Byron Fouty, was found dead in Iraq near Jimenez's remains. Dibler, of Oxford, Mich., had become close with Jimenez's family after their sons disappeared the same day.
"This will always be an open wound," Dibler said. "You never really do close it."
NewsDay
Yesterday, the father held out the bracelets as he stood in front of his son's coffin at Long Island National Cemetery, Pinelawn.
"This was given to me ... to give to you when you return," Andy Jimenez said in Spanish, his voice shaking. "Well, now you're home, so here, I'll give them to you."
Jimenez placed the bracelets next to three red roses on the wood coffin, his last gift to his oldest son and the conclusion of 14 anguished months of dread and hope for the family.
Sgt. Alex Jimenez, of Corona, Queens, was 25 on May 12, 2007, when his unit was attacked about 20 miles south of Baghdad near the village of Al Taqa, an area known to soldiers as the Triangle of Death. He was captured along with two other soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, and for more than a year, his family waited for news.
Their hopes were dashed July 10, when the Army told them Jimenez's remains had been found along with one of the other captured soldiers'.
Yesterday, during a funeral Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church in Corona, Jimenez was heralded as a hero and defender of the defenseless, an idealistic young man who saw military service as a means to help others.
His family could not conceal their grief or their pride.
"He was only 25. He wasn't supposed to die. But when he was alive, he held his head up high," his cousin, Braulio Duran Jr., 21, rapped as a photo montage of Jimenez was played at the church, showing him first as a carefree child and later as a grim-faced soldier in Baghdad.
Another cousin, Raymond Kairus, said he once asked Jimenez why he joined the military.
"I know it might sound kind of corny," Kairus recalled Jimenez saying. "But I grew up watching cartoons like Superman and Batman ... I can't put on a cape and fly, but I'm going to do the next closest thing."
In his homily, the Rev. Thomas Healy read a letter Jimenez wrote to an Army recruiter as a senior in high school. "If I ever get recruited, I want to fight for the innocent who cannot fight for themselves," Jimenez wrote.
Brig. Gen. Michael Harrison, the commander of Fort Drum, said Jimenez was "so serious about helping Iraqis that he took it upon himself to learn the Arabic language."
Jimenez - who was born in New York and split his childhood between Queens, Massachusetts and the Dominican Republic - was well-known in his Corona neighborhood. About 200 mourners gathered on the concrete steps outside the church, holding American flags and wearing black and white ribbons. Later, nearly 100 climbed onto three buses headed for Pinelawn and the burial.
At the cemetery, six members of the 10th Mountain Division in green dress uniforms carried the coffin to a gazebo for a prayer service. Harrison knelt and presented American flags to Jimenez's father, his mother, Maria Duran, and his widow, Yaderlin.
Many openly wept when soldiers performed a 21-gun salute and a bugler played "Taps." Jimenez's younger brother, Andy, hugged the coffin and cried, "No, no, no."
Standing nearby was Gordon Dibler, whose son, Army Spc. Byron Fouty, was found dead in Iraq near Jimenez's remains. Dibler, of Oxford, Mich., had become close with Jimenez's family after their sons disappeared the same day.
"This will always be an open wound," Dibler said. "You never really do close it."
NewsDay
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