COMBAT VETERANS INTERNATIONAL
In Loving Memory
U.S. Army Specialist Jonathan J. Santos
BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Army Spc. Jonathan Santos, 22, of Bellingham has died from injuries suffered in an attack on his vehicle in Iraq, his mother said.
Santos, a linguist with the 9th Psychological Operations Battalion out of Fort Bragg, N.C., was injured Friday afternoon when an explosion hit his vehicle during combat operations, Doris Kent said.
He died less than four hours later. "He didn't make it into the hospital," Kent told The Bellingham Herald.
Maj. Paul Swiergosz, U.S. Department of Defense spokesman, said the military could not provide details on service members killed in Iraq until 24 hours after a family member has been notified.
Santos left for his first tour of Iraq on Sept. 7 and celebrated his birthday there on Sept. 23, Kent said.
He had enlisted in the Army's Delayed Entry Program in 2000 and entered the service with a four-year commitment after graduating the following spring.
"He didn't want me to pay for college," Kent said. "He said he wanted to do it on his own."
She said he studied Arabic in the Army. He served in Haiti for about three months earlier this year, she said.
Kent said her son loved being with people and was an avid reader.
"When he was in Iraq he gathered about 75 books, so somebody named him 'the librarian,"' she said.
Sehome High School's wrestling coach Scott Schroyer remembered Santos, a member of his team, as a quiet, solid, hardworking person who went out of his way to help his teammates and did whatever was asked of him.
"Wrestling's a sport where you've got to be emotionally tough and you've got to show courage and he did that," Schroyer said. "I remember one match in particular his senior year at the district tournament, he sort of rose up and upset a kid that he probably wasn't supposed to beat."
Santos' two younger brothers attend Sehome High School and Fairhaven Middle School.
His father, Leslie Santos, serves in the military and is now stationed in Wisconsin, Kent said. The young man's stepfather, Christopher Kent, and both his grandfathers were also in the military, Doris Kent said.
She had spoken with her son twice since he went to Iraq; the last time was two weekends ago.
Kent said an Army chaplain and another soldier knocked on the family's door at 6 a.m. Saturday.
"You know what they came to say," she said. "You don't really want them
to say anything. ... If they say it, it makes it real."
| Guamanian soldier killed in
land mine blast in Iraq By Katie Worth |
Yet another Guam family's world was shattered this weekend with the news that a loved one was killed in Iraq. Last night, a Mass was held for former Agat resident U.S. Army Spc. Jonathan Pangelinan Santos, who was killed in Karabilah, Iraq, on Friday -- just a month after he began his tour of duty there. Masses also will be said tonight, tomorrow and Friday at Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Santa Rita. Santos, who turned 22 just a few weeks ago, was a linguist for the 9th Psychological Operations Battalion out of Fort Bragg, N.C. He was one of three people killed when their vehicle hit a land mine during combat, said his uncle, Agat resident Felix Pangelinan. Word of Santos' death came just days after the news that another Guam son, former Agat resident Ferdinand Ibabao, 36, was killed in the Green Zone in Baghdad. Santos became the seventh person from the Micronesia region killed in Iraq in less than a year. 'Mother's intuition' Pangelinan said news of Santos' death has devastated the family, especially Santos' mother, Doris P. Kent, who now lives in Bellingham, Wash. "My sister called about 30 minutes after midnight Sunday morning and informed us," Pangelinan said in a voice laden with sorrow. "We're taking it pretty hard, but what can we do? Just pray for him." "She's taking it really hard because she didn't want her son to go to Iraq. She really went off the handle when she found out he had to go there. She called me up crying, telling me he's been ordered to go to Iraq and she didn't want him to go," he said. "She couldn't sleep or eat. It was just very hard for her to know that her son was in Iraq." At first, Pangelinan said, he assumed his sister was so distraught because she knew it was a dangerous place. "But now that this incident has happened, to me, it's like a mother's intuition," he said. Santos spent most of his childhood moving place to place because his father was in the military, Pangelinan said. In 1992, the family returned to Guam and spent the next four years here before moving to the mainland. Santos loved languages and in his last year of high school, he enlisted in the Army's Delayed Entry Program with hopes of studying Chinese, Kent told the Bellingham Herald. But because he scored so high, they instead moved him to the Arabic program, she said. Santos has always been a devoted student who loved to read and learn, Pangelinan said. "He was a scholar. ... He was a very conservative, quiet guy, kind of shy," he said, adding that he had a chance to get to know his nephew well when he was living on island. "When they lived on Guam, he was always over at my house because I have a son his age." Pangelinan said he and two siblings are trying to pull together their resources to fly to Washington for the funeral, but in any case, there will be a Mass held for Santos on Guam the same day as his funeral. Santos' father, Leslie Santos; stepfather, Christopher Kent; and both his grandfathers were in the military, and Leslie Santos is now stationed in Wisconsin, the Bellingham Herald reported. Pangelinan said Leslie Santos' family, though originally from Guam, mostly live in California now. Doris Kent told the Bellingham Herald that she had spoken to her son twice since he went to Iraq. Her family heard of the death when an Army chaplain and another soldier knocked on the family's door early morning Saturday. "You know what they came to say," she was quoted as saying in the report. "You don't really want them to say anything. ... If they say it, it makes it real." Services Masses of intention are being held at 6:30 p.m. tonight, tomorrow and Friday at Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Santa Rita. Another Mass will be held in Guam on the day of his funeral in Washington state. No funeral arrangements have been made yet. |
Visitation held for late Bellingham soldier
Mary Lane Gallagher, The Bellingham Herald
Family and friends of Army Cpl. Jonathan Santos gathered in Bellingham Sunday to spend a few quiet moments with the 22-year-old's flag-draped coffin before his burial today.
Funeral today 10/25/04
A funeral Mass for Santos will be celebrated today at Assumption Catholic Church at 10:30
a.m., followed by burial with full military honors at Bayview Cemetery.
Santos died Oct. 15, the first Whatcom County resident to be killed in action in the war in Iraq. He was a linguist with the 9th Psychological Operations Battalion, based in Fort Bragg, N.C.
Since his death, Santos' family has been deluged with hundreds of cards from well-wishers, said his mother, Doris Kent.
Many of the cards are from people the family had never met, she said.
"It's just the most comforting thing, that people are reaching out in ways that I hadn't experienced before," Kent said. "If there's going to be something wonderful that comes from Jonathan being killed, it's going to be that people reach inside themselves and be able to find the compassion we desperately need to show each other."
Among those who paid their respects Sunday were eight members of the Honor Guard from American Legion Post. No. 7.
"I told them, 'Cpl. Santos is honored,'" Kent said.
Three of Santos' Army friends from Fort Bragg also flew to Bellingham to say goodbye. They knelt on a bench next to the coffin and bowed their heads in the silent chapel.
To the rear of the chapel were dozens of pictures of Santos, hugging his mom on the day he graduated from Sehome High School, posing with a prom date, smiling in Army fatigues. Kent also asked well-wishers to write their favorite memories of her son to later include in a scrapbook.
At least one person Kent did not know came to the visitation. The woman pressed a rosary into Kent's hand, saying she knew Kent needed it.
"She was right," Kent said. "I left mine at home."
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