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 COMBAT OUTPOST CASTLE, Afghanistan (4/11/2012) – “It's going
to be a little quiet and boring the rest of the deployment
now ... without his jokes and all the other stuff he gets us
into.”
Cpl. Anthony Gamino, a rifleman and light
armored vehicle scout with Delta Company, 1st Light Armored
Reconnaissance Battalion, said this after a memorial service
held here, April 8, for a fallen fellow Marine, Cpl. Roberto
Cazarez (photo left).
Marines and sailors serving with 1st LAR in
Helmand province's Khan Neshin district paid homage to
Cazarez, a light armored vehicle driver with the company's
Alpha Section, White Platoon, who was killed in action
during combat operations March 30.
Like most
Marines, Cazarez was quite the character in his unit. His
fellow Marines said his spirit in the unit is irreplaceable.
Cazarez was born in Angostura, Mexico. After he
graduated from high school in Los Angeles, he enlisted in
the Marine Corps to serve a country that he wasn't a citizen
of yet.
His first job in the Marine Corps was as a
small arms repair technician, commonly known as an armorer
to Marines. After he served his first enlistment, he made an
uncommon occupation change – he reenlisted into the infantry
field, specifically as a light armored vehicle crewman.
Yet, his distinctive background wasn't what he was really
known for. He had qualities that were perhaps a bit more
unique that Marines said kept them on their toes, close-knit
and always smiling.
He was a man of good-natured
debates, and “it didn't matter what it was about, or who it
was with.”
“Kickball. It's a simple game, but he'd
argue every single point about it,” said Cazarez's friend
and fellow platoon member Cpl. John W. Nelson II, a Turner,
Maine, native. “A couple days before he was killed, we were
playing kickball as a platoon at our patrol base, and he was
arguing with our platoon sergeant about the score, about the
rules of the game and about anything you could think of. He
would always argue a good point.”
His wit extended
further than arguments, according to everyone who reflected
on Cazarez at the ceremony. Gamino said no matter what, he
always had a joke for something.
“If you had a joke
for him, he had a joke for you,” said Gamino, a native of
Oceanside, Calif. “We'd pretty much just make fun of each
other. You couldn't even get mad at him. You pretty much had
to laugh and walk away.”
Cazarez's platoon commander,
1st Lt. Alexander White, a Fredericksburg, Va., native, said
his great sense of humor was a way to “just keep everybody
engaged” and “included.”
Cazarez was the platoon
commander's light armored vehicle driver. Their mission
usually entailed patrolling the rugged battle space,
detaching from the outpost for almost weeks at a time. His
platoonmates said driving wasn't enough for him. He always
volunteered to patrol on foot, a responsibility normally
left for the scouts.
“When the crewman would come out
to patrol, he'd always come up to us and say ‘throw us on
patrols, throw us on patrols,'” said Turner, who was a team
leader in the section.
His enthusiasm for patrolling
and contributing to the mission came with a price he was
willing to pay: carrying the Thor, a counter improvised
explosive device system that protects Marines from remote
detonating IEDs. The system weighs more than 25 pounds and
isn't an easy piece of gear to carry, said Turner.
“He'd always carry the Thor,” said Turner. “It really pulled
down on your shoulders really bad, and the batteries are
extremely heavy for it. But if carrying the Thor is what it
took to get on a (foot) patrol, then he was all about it.”
During the memorial service, some of Cazarez's close
friends read personal reflections of their fallen friend.
Most of which were light-spirited and filled with funny
anecdotes. Lieutenant Col. George C. Schreffler, the
battalion commander, reminded those in attendance of the
impact Marines like Cazarez had in the land they patrolled.
“Cpl. Cazarez made important contributions to the
success of his platoon and to the security of the
communities where he served in Afghanistan,” said Schreffler,
a native of Harrisburg, Pa. “On the day before he fell, I
enjoyed the privilege of visiting 2nd Platoon, and
patrolling with the Marines in the village of Qual-e Now. We
encountered Afghan people who expressed their gratitude for
the security that the Marines provide. We also inspected the
police precinct in Qual-e Now. While there, the patrolman
greeted us warmly and by name. This kind of relationship is
difficult to achieve and it displayed to me the dedication
and skill that Cpl. Cazarez and the other members of 2nd
Platoon (White Platoon) invest in their mission every day.”
Cazarez is survived by his wife Sonia. Sgt. Gregory
Hartman, a vehicle commander with Delta Company, said
Cazarez loved being a Marine, but his love for his wife was
“indescribable with words.”
“She was his world,” he
said.
Delta Company's first sergeant, 1st Sgt. Erik
Starkey, said the Marines will be praying for the Cazarez
family and “he'll do great things for God up in heaven.”
More photos of Marine Cpl. Roberto Cazarez's
memorial service available below |
Video of
memorial ceremony
By USMC Sgt. Michael Cifuentes
Regimental Combat Team-5, 1st Marine Division
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2012
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