Hawai'i troops honor fallen Isle warrior
By William ColeAdvertiser Military Writer
RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser RICHARD AMBO | The Honolulu Advertiser
LSA ANACONDA, Iraq — Eight thousand miles from home, Hawai'i soldiers of the Lava Brigade yesterday said goodbye to Sgt. Deyson K. Cariaga with Island song, heartfelt words and Army tradition as they struggled with the loss of one of their own.
Two friends and colleagues of Sgt. Deyson Cariaga embrace in front of a combat memorial in his honor during a ceremony at LSA Anaconda. The Advertiser was asked to not identify some members of Cariaga's unit because of the nature of their work.
Colleagues of Sgt. Deyson Cariaga, killed by an explosion outside LSA Anaconda, salute at the late soldier's combat memorial.
First Sgt. Yale Alama stands at attention while Taps is played during a memorial ceremony for Sgt. Deyson Cariaga, who was killed by a roadside bomb outside the base Friday.
In a movie theater on this hot, dusty air base north of Baghdad, those who knew Cariaga, 20, talked of what might have been, and the necessity of remembering the athletic, motivated soldier killed Friday by a roadside bomb.
The Kalihi man's death, almost halfway through a one-year deployment, is the first from the state for the Hawai'i National Guard, and a terrible reminder of how most U.S. service members are killed in Iraq.
"I told Deyson that Sgt. (Jared) Chong, myself and he would plan a trip to Kalaeloa, White Plains Beach, when we got back," Maj. Moses Kaoiwi told nearly 500 service members filling the theater. "We would spend the whole day surfing over there."
Kaoiwi, 39, part of the Tactical Human Intelligence team that Cariaga belonged to, said that years from now, if he's asked about the Iraq war, "I will talk about the heroes of this war, and at the top of my list will be Spc. Deyson Cariaga, a hero who sacrificed his life so others could be free."
Cariaga, a 2002 graduate of Roosevelt High School, was driving the third of seven Humvees in a convoy heading back to the U.S. logistics support area on a beat-up asphalt road the military calls Route Heather when a 155 mm artillery shell exploded practically beneath him. He was posthumously promoted to sergeant.
The route that runs north and west of the big air base also is called IED Alley for the number of "improvised explosive devices" found there.
Two of three Air Force people in the Humvee were rushed to Germany with shrapnel injuries and broken ribs. A third was treated and released. Cariaga bore the brunt of the blast and was killed instantly, officials said.
He was taking part in a 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry operation called Cobra Strike just west of LSA Anaconda in which Iraqi soldiers searched homes for information on militants firing rockets and mortars at the base while U.S. forces shadowed them.
As Cariaga's body was flown home in a flag-draped coffin, fellow soldiers held a memorial ceremony in the base theater.
A 10-by-15-foot image of the lanky Cariaga was shown on the movie screen while a combat memorial of an upturned M-16 rifle topped by his helmet, dog tags, desert boots, framed photo and folded American flag were at the edge of the stage.
Cariaga, whose nickname was "Dice," enlisted in the Hawai'i Army National Guard in January 2002 while still in high school.
He worked part time at a retirement home and was scheduled to attend college in the fall of 2004, but the plan was put on hold with the Iraq deployment.
Cariaga was part of the 229th Military Intelligence Company, a unit of several dozen soldiers who worked with counterparts in the Air Force Office of Special Investigation. He met with local Iraqis as an intelligence gatherer.
He also was a combat lifesaver, a step below medic, and a Raven unmanned aerial vehicle pilot.
All the vehicles in the convoy the day Cariaga was killed were Air Force Humvees, and there were no other Hawai'i soldiers along, officials said.
Capt. Mike Desmond, who commands the 229th, said, "When I talked to Spc. Cariaga about the position, his first question was, would he be able to go outside the wire (outside the base). He was worried that he'd be stuck in an office and not be able to do his type of soldiering."
Desmond said Cariaga excelled at whatever he did, "and that day, he was doing the job that he loved — collecting intelligence so he could prevent attacks against American soldiers."
If the explosion, which folded over and pancaked the front left tire of the Humvee, had been 18 inches to the rear, "probably everyone in that vehicle would be dead," said Desmond, who lives in 'Aiea and is an intelligence officer with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
In the theater lobby after the ceremony, Sgt. Wilfredo Dinong, 23, from Wai'anae, who also is part of the 229th, said Cariaga's death hasn't sunk in yet.
"It'll take a while," said Dinong. "Like so many things going on right now, it's hard to think about it. Gotta do your job."
Staff Sgt. Marc Britos, 32, from Mililani, said he's not sure how everyone is taking Cariaga's death, "but I'm sure they are deeply remorseful. We're 'ohana, and it's like your own brother going down."
Chong, 25, from Kailua, Cariaga's roommate and team leader, spoke at the memorial ceremony and said that in the National Guard, "you meet the man in the uniform, you understand him, you meet his wife, you meet his kids, you attend his wedding and Christmas parties. In the National Guard, you don't just lose a soldier ... you lose family."
There have been injuries before. The 100th Battalion has received or is processing more than 25 Purple Hearts, all of which are related to roadside bombs that exploded near LSA Anaconda.
"In your mindset, you know (a fatality) is going to happen. You already accept it," said Britos, a full-time Hawai'i National Guard recruiter. "Everyone's aware now: The imminent threat is out there."
Emotions were kept relatively in check at the memorial, but whether soldiers knew Cariaga personally or not, his death has refocused thoughts on the deadly nature of what the soldiers often are up against in what has become a guerrilla war.
"You don't really think anything is going to happen, because it's a normal thing — IEDs, you get mortar attacks," said Sgt. Joseph Lewis, 24, from Nanakuli, who drives for Brig. Gen. Joseph Chaves, the commander of the 29th Brigade Combat Team. "So it (a death) is unexpected, but everything is unexpected. Every soldier here will tell you they take it day by day, waiting to go home."
The memorial ceremony included a 21-gun salute, Taps and songs by the Hula Halau O Lava Brigade, a group of seven 'ukulele and guitar players.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, soldiers with M-16s in desert camouflage uniforms and Air Force airmen came up singly and in small groups to salute the framed photo of Cariaga.
Among them was Chaves, the Hawai'i brigade commander, who raised a final, deliberately slow and extended salute to Cariaga as Hula Halau O Lava played "White Sandy Beach," and sang:
Last night in my dream,
I saw your face again,
We were there, in the sun,
On a white sandy beach of Hawai'i.
Correction: Sgt. Deyson K. Cariaga did not previously work as a waiter at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel. A previous verision of this story contained incorrect information.
