"Nothing was going to stop him," said Joe Garcia, a family friend. "He wanted to join the Army at 17 and he wanted to fight for his country."
September 23, 2008, 6:17 p.m. by Sheryl Kornman from the Tuscon Citizen-
Army Pvt. Joseph F. Gonzales Jr., 18, said the military was his destiny, his father said Tuesday.
Joseph Gonzales Sr. spoke about his firstborn child as the family prepared to bury him in Tucson later in the week.
Gonzales Jr. and a fellow soldier were killed Saturday by an improvised explosive device in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan.
On Tuesday his remains were at Dover Air Force Base, awaiting a flight to Tucson. He will be buried at South Lawn Cemetery, 5401 S. Park Ave.
Gonzales Sr. said that whenever his elder son looked at the photograph of himself as a toddler in a miniature military uniform taken at a local mall, "he would say that was destiny for him."
As he trained at Fort Bragg, his father said, his affinity for his new fighting skills were reflected on his MySpace page:
One song title he posted, "Bullet With Your Name," by a group called Scars of Life, was typical, his father pointed out.
He considered his enlistment in the Army in Phoenix at age 17 his birthday gift to himself, his father said. Gonzales Sr. and his wife gave their permission so their son didn't have to wait another year.
Gonzales Sr. said his own brother served in Kuwait but that neither he nor Gonzales Jr.'s mother, Ana, wanted their son to go to war.
"We were trying to go the opposite way with him," he said. "But we couldn't stop it so we went with him" and supported his military commitment.
"After he saw the towers go down (on 9/11) it changed him alot," his father said. "It was payback time for him. That's what he wanted, to get ready for war."
Gonzales Sr. said the family's only remaining son, Jorge, 15, wants to join the miltary, too.
"He wants to do payback for his brother," Gonzales said.
Gonzales Jr. attended Sunnyside High School and played football for two years. At 16, he enrolled in a National Guard-operated school in Carefree.
He was a cadet there until his 17th birthday in March 2007.
"He wanted to go into the Marines. I didn't want him to," his father said. "I tried talking him into the Navy or Air Force, something farther away from (the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq)."
In the Army, he wanted to go to Army Airborne School, "but they didn't have any openings," Gonzale Sr. said. "They had an infantry spot, so he took that."
He trained in California for a July deployment in Operation Enduring Freedom.
He saw his family last on July 4th, when he visited in Tucson with his family and cousins.
Gonzales said his son had "an extremely large heart" and "would try to help the homeless out with money. If he had it, he would give it to them. He was one of those types."
Laura Garcia, a friend from their time at Sunnyside, learned about his death while watching TV Monday.
The two have been corresponding on MySpace since he joined the Army. They had a standing lunch date for whenever he returned to Tucson.
He wanted to be a Tucson Police SWAT officer once his Army commitment was fulfilled, she said.
"I am very proud of him and thank him so much for serving his country," she said.
Omar Perez said they played football at Sunnyside two years.
"He was a great friend, always smiling and having fun," he said in an e-mail.
"He moved and all we heard from him was that he joined the Army. Then one day, a group of soldiers came to our school and talked to us about the Army."
One of the soldiers was Gonzales. "That was the last time I spent time with him," Perez said.
Afghan war claims Pvt. Gonzales of Tucson
By Alex Dalenberg
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.23.2008
When Army Pvt. Joseph F. Gonzales Jr. came back from the military to visit his family, he would point to a picture of himself as a toddler dressed in combat fatigues.
"He would look at it and say, 'It's fate.' It was something that he was meant to do," his father, Joseph Gonzales Sr., said Monday evening.
Pvt. Gonzales, 18, died Saturday in Afghanistan supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. He and another soldier were killed when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in the Korengal Valley, a Defense Department news release said Monday.
Gonzales was born and raised in Tucson, growing up and attending school on the South Side. He wrestled for Sierra Middle School. He played football his freshman year for Sunnyside High School. He loved weightlifting, his father said.
And Gonzales always wanted to be a soldier, ever since he was young, his father said.
After almost three years at Sunnyside High, he left to attend Project Challenge, a military school in Queen Creek that is supported by the Arizona National Guard.
His parents hoped Project Challenge might change their son's mind about the military — "show him that it wasn't something he wanted to do," the elder Gonzales said.
"But he fell in love with it," his father said. He was sworn into the military on his 17th birthday.
After he enlisted in the Army, Gonzales returned to speak at Project Challenge in May, his father said.
The school plans to send a busload of students to his funeral, said Richard Hernandez, a funeral arranger at South Lawn Mortuary.
Pvt. Gonzales' younger brother, Jorge Gonzales, remembers that "we fought a lot," but he said it wasn't serious. "It wasn't fighting fighting, you know."
Jorge said the military changed his brother for the better. When he came back, he was more focused and more mature.
When Gonzales visited, they would go jogging together in Reid Park and talk about life, anything, his brother said.
"He was a good person. He'd always call us just make sure everything was good," Jorge said.
Gonzales was deployed to Afghanistan in late July.
His father still has the text message from his son saying that he was on his way to the war. He was happy to go, his father said.
"They kept changing his deployment date, and he would get antsy," he said.
"He was all excited to be over there," Jorge said.
Gonzales is also survived by his mother and younger sister.
Gonzales was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. He was a member of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, according to the Defense Department.
Gonzales is the 38th service member with ties to Tucson or Southern Arizona to be claimed by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
September 30, 2008, 9:07 p.m.
SHERYL KORNMANTucson Citizen
Army infantryman Joseph F. Gonzales, a Tucson native serving in Afghanistan, told his family when he last saw it July 4 not to worry about him.
On Tuesday, he was buried with full military honors at South Lawn Cemetery, 5401 S. Park Ave.
Gonzales, an 18-year-old Army private, was killed Sept. 20 in the Korengal Valley by an improvised explosive device, according to the Department of Defense. Another soldier, Staff Sgt. Nathan Cox of Walcott, Iowa, also died in the blast.
After he was sent to Afghanistan in July, Gonzales kept in close touch with his family, exchanging e-mail or text messages with his father daily, family friends said.
He spoke with his dad, Joseph Gonzales Sr., the day before he died.
Gonzales was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
The medals were presented Tuesday by Army Brig. Gen. Susan Lawrence, who attended the service with a Fort Huachuca honor guard and family members and friends.
Among them was Pvt. Jermaine Decker of Logan, Iowa, who served with Gonzales and was shot in the thigh in Afghanistan a month before Gonzales was killed. He was too overcome with emotion to talk about his friend.
Decker sat, crutches at his side, with the family at the church service at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 602 W. Ajo Way, and with the family at the cemetery.
His Army brothers called him "Gonzo" but to his family he was "The Bear," Lawrence said, after presenting Gonzales' parents with his medals.
She said his last duty was "a tough mission" that he volunteered for. "They knew what they were going to face," she said.
"He was always the first to stand up and say, 'Send me.' "
"Nothing was going to stop him," said Joe Garcia, a family friend. "He wanted to join the Army at 17 and he wanted to fight for his country."
"I told him, mijo (my son), be careful," said Mary Garcia, Joe Garcia's wife. Joe Garcia worked with Gonzales' father for several years in a janitorial service.
Mary Garcia said Gonzales told his family about two weeks ago that he was coming home on leave in a few days.
"He said, 'Don't worry about me. I'll be back.' He came back. . . ," she said.
The Garcias learned of his death on TV news.
Their daughter Rosa, 17, a Sunnyside High School student, said she's going to join the Army soon, in honor of Gonzales.
When she heard he was dead, she said she asked: "Why did it have to be someone I know?"
Mary Garcia said Joseph Gonzales Sr. urged Rosa on Tuesday to change her mind.
"Don't go," he told her, she said in an interview after Gonzales' silver casket was lowered into the ground.
Gonzales' family members each laid a white rose in the casket before it was sealed.
The casket was covered with a full-length image of the American flag blowing in the wind.
The body was carried to South Lawn Cemetery in a 19th-century horse-drawn hearse.
Church bells tolled slowly as an Army honor guard from Fort Huachuca escorted the casket to the hearse.
About 150 relatives and friends of Gonzales and parishioners of the church attended the mariachi Mass there.
Mariachi Mixteca and the Rev. Robert Gonzalez praised Gonzales for his service to his country.
Gonzalez prayed for "all our sons and daughters" who are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Claudia Lorena Ballesteros, a cousin of Gonzales, said in Spanish that she was grateful to the Army for all it had done for the family.
She also thanked "all the soldiers" who came to the funeral.
Gonzales joined the Army in April 2007 as an infantryman and had been assigned to the 1st Infantry Division since October 2007, according to the public affairs staff at Fort Hood in Texas.
Link to the video of his funeral procession is here
He was one of two soldiers killed in action on Sept. 20 in the Korengal Valley when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb. A Defense Department news release initially identified Gonzales as a private, but Army officials at his funeral said he was a private first class.
Even from the other side of the world, Gonzales' battle comrades made it clear that they had not forgotten him Tuesday.
In a sea of red, white and blue funeral flowers, one bouquet was from the "Soldiers of B Co. 2nd Platoon."
"Rest in Peace," the banner read. "Until we meet again."
The statement released by the Naval Special Warfare Group 2 at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek – Fort Story read: “Adam Brown was a brave American patriot and fantastic Navy SEAL. We are deeply saddened by this tremendous loss of a fellow brother in arms and teammate.” Brown was the recipient of a Bronze Star with combat “V” for Valor and a Purple Heart.
