MILITARY DEATHS

Marine Cpl. William I. Salazar, 26, Canoga Park; Killed in Bomb Blast

By Gregory W. Griggs
Times Staff Writer

October 24, 2004

William Isac Salazar rarely remembered birthdays, but this year he got it right.

The Marine corporal sent his father an e-mail from Iraq Oct. 14 to wish him well on his 56th, which was the next day. "I always forget your birthday so if I'm late or early, at least I tried to remember," he wrote. "So Happy Birthday, Dad. Send pictures of family and friends when you can."

Gus Salazar, who often checked the computer at his Canoga Park home for a message from his youngest son, promptly sent a reply that was never answered.

As Salazar, 26, was traveling Oct. 15 in a convoy in Karabilah in Al Anbar province near the Syrian border, a suicide car bomber drove into the formation of Humvees and trucks, killing him, two U.S. soldiers and a civilian Iraqi interpreter.

The Department of Defense identified the other American casualties as Army Sgt. Michael Glenn Owen, 31, of Phoenix, and Spc. Jonathan Jose Santos, 22, of Whatcom County, Wash.

When two Marines and a Navy chaplain showed up at the Salazar home that Saturday morning during breakfast, Gus Salazar thought they were collecting for charity.

His wife, Jennifer Nejman-Salazar, knew better.

"I've seen enough movies to know that scene. When I saw them, my heart just sunk, because I knew William had died. I screamed, 'Oh, my God. No!'

"I see other casualties on TV and feel for those families, but you never know what it's like until it happens to you. My life will never be the same again."

Salazar was a video cameraman and photographer who documented daily war activities and created training videos. He is the only cameraman to die during Operation Iraqi Freedom so far, and is believed to be the first military combat photographer to die in action since the Vietnam War.

Carrying rifles along with their digital equipment, combat camera teams work in pairs and accompany at least two patrols a day. Salazar would usually try to go on three patrols, said Lance Cpl. Michael McMaugh, who worked with him for two months this summer before returning to Camp Pendleton in September.

"He always wanted to go out. If something big was happening he wanted to be there to catch the action," McMaugh said. "He was always a hard worker, a take-charge kind of guy."

Staff Sgt. Paul Anstine, who oversaw Salazar's work in Iraq, said "Salazario," as he called him, learned photography so well during four months of special training at Ft. Meade in Maryland that he was given additional instruction in video production.

"I'll always remember he wanted to be better at what he did. He was always asking questions," Anstine said. "He had a true desire for knowledge to be a better combat cameraman and better leader…. That's what will always define him for me."

Salazar grew up in Lynwood and graduated from South Gate High School in 1996. An artistic teenager, he played accordion and trombone, liked to sketch and create CD cover designs, and was a party DJ who favored hip hop and rap, said Nejman-Salazar, his stepmother.

He took computer graphic design classes at Santa Monica College. Salazar also attended East Los Angeles College, where he played trombone in the marching band and for two of the school's jazz bands.

Band director Jesus Martinez said Salazar was serious about rehearsals and won awards for most spirited player and for most-improved Latin jazz musician.

A classmate, who is a professional guitarist, liked Salazar's sound so much he invited him to join his off-campus ensemble.

"He played with heart. It wasn't just about technique," said Scott Rodarte, who played with Salazar for about a year. "That's why instructors and everybody liked him. He really felt the music."

Salazar, who even then wore a crew cut, wanted to join the military but was rejected twice because of his weight, said Nejman-Salazar.

About four years ago, he moved to Las Vegas and briefly lived with his uncle, Lou Salazar, who was a Marine during the Vietnam War.

After Sept. 11, Nejman-Salazar said, William got serious about getting in shape, dropped more than 50 pounds and began his service at Camp Pendleton on Dec. 10, 2001.

His first overseas assignment was to create military training videos in Okinawa, Japan, for a year. He earned the National Defense Service Medal and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon. Salazar was deployed to Iraq in May.

Salazar was laid to rest Saturday with full military honors at St. Hilary Catholic Church in Pico Rivera. Burial was at Resurrection Cemetery in Montebello.

Gloria Salazar, mother of Las Vegas Marine Cpl. William I. Salazar, cries on the coffin of her 26-year-old son Saturday, Oct. 23, 2004

Gloria Salazar, second from left, mother of Las Vegas Marine Cpl. William I. Salazar, is consoled by family members

Marine Killed in Iraq Remembered
PICO RIVERA, CALIF. — Marine Cpl. William Salazar carried a rifle but hardly used it in Iraq.
Instead, he wielded a video camera to capture footage of the war and suspected terrorists and hoped his work might one day lead to a job in the film industry.

Salazar, 26, killed in an Oct. 15 suicide bombing in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, became the first Marine combat cameraman killed in action since 1967 during the Vietnam war, said his commander, Staff Sgt. Paul Anstine.

He was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton.

At his funeral Saturday, the Las Vegas resident who grew up in the Los Angeles area was remembered by hundreds of family members, friends and Marines who said he fulfilled his ultimate dream of becoming a Marine.

"I'm sad but I can't be much happier knowing that he lived and achieved his dream," his father, 56-year-old Gus Salazar of Northridge, said at a family gathering following the memorial services.

William Salazar, one of about 20 Marine still and video cameramen serving in Iraq, shot footage of suspected terrorists, Iraqi government officials and vehicle checkpoints, Anstine said.

"He was not afraid to get close to the action," Anstine said. "Some people are very shy and they use their zoom lenses. He wasn't afraid to get right up there. ... He loved the Marine Corps and loved what he did and had a great desire to be better, because he soaked up everything I could teach him."

While on assignments, Salazar carried both a rifle and a Sony video camera equipped with night vision lenses. He received most of his assignments from Anstine through a secure e-mail network, but also was given the authority to chose missions within his division, Anstine said.

"Anything like raids, he wanted to go on. Sometimes he'd want to overwork himself by going on way too many missions," said his former combat partner, Lance Cpl. Michael McMaugh, who went on missions with Salazar shooting photographs of the war. "He always wanted to be part of the action."

Salazar had tried to join the Marines shortly after high school, but was turned down several times because he was overweight, his relatives and friends said.

When he was eventually recruited in November 2001, he had wanted to become a demolition expert but was assigned as a combat cameraman, in part, because of his education in graphic arts at the Art Institute of Los Angeles, his father said.

Salazar, who was scheduled to complete his tour in February, had debated whether to remain in the Marines or return to California to find work as a cameraman in the film industry.

"Just come back safe," his uncle, 53-year-old Lou Salazar of Las Vegas, said he told him the last time they talked.

A Hero's Send-Off

Former Pico Rivera Resident Killed in Iraq

By Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell
Staff Writer


Saturday, October 23, 2004 - PICO RIVERA -- Gloria Salazar draped her body over her son's coffin and cried out "Oh my baby, I love you so much' before family members gently pulled her away during graveside ceremonies Saturday for the young Marine.

Salazar and other relatives, friends and fellow Marines gathered to honor 26-year-old Cpl. William I. Salazar, killed during a suicide bomb attack Oct. 15 in Iraq.

"It's funny, I hear him talking to me, smiling and laughing and saying 'Whoa, all this for me?' ' said Salazar. "After this, I will support the troops, but I don't feel we should be in Iraq any longer. I don't want any more moms to feel the pain I am feeling today.'

The day of mourning began with a Mass led by the Rev. Joshua Lee at St. Hilary Church in Pico Rivera, the city where Salazar lived for several years.

"William has died, but what we are celebrating today is that he has entered into eternal life and leaves behind a legacy that he was patriotic, a family person and leader who was proud to be a Marine,' Lee said to the nearly 500 people in the church. "And we also pray to our Lord for all the men and women serving in the military and let them know our eternal gratitude.'

A funeral procession went to Resurrection Cemetery in Montebello, where people said their final goodbyes.

Young mothers held their children close and family members hugged each other and sobbed as Salazar was honored with a rifle salute, the playing of t aps by a bugler and the folding and presenting of the flag.

At the cemetery, friends from Salazar's teen years said it was hard to believe the buddy they called "Willy' was gone.

"He used to work at this pizza place in Uptown Whittier, and I'd hear a honk and there he would be to pick me up. He was like that, fun-loving spontaneous, a cook and a dancer, a real good dancer,' said Brian Hidalgo, 26. "He's my only friend who has died in Iraq.'

"It's mostly sad he had to die so far from home,' added Anthony Padilla, 24.

There was less sadness and more shared memories at the reception that concluded the ceremonies at the Whittier Community Center.

In the room filled with pictures from Salazar's childhood and military days, people stepped up to a microphone to tell stories.

"William loved being a Marine. He tried so many times to be a Marine, and he didn't give up, and I will never be ashamed of that,' said his father, Gus Salazar, before asking the crowd to stand up and applaud the other young Marines in the room.

Marine Staff Sgt. Paul Anstine, 26, who served with Salazar in Iraq for about four months, remembered Salazar as a really hardworking guy who did everything he was asked to do.

"He always wanted to be better at whatever he did,' he said. "And now we are just trying to do the best we can with the situation. It still doesn't seem real.'

Anstine added his friend was the first combat cameraman to die in action in 37 years.

Salazar, assigned to the Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1 Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, was killed five months into his Iraqi tour, on his father's birthday.

A team leader for the Combat Camera Detachment, it was his job to videotape weapons searches of vehicles and other operations, with the information used for intelligence purposes, according to family members.

He attended schools in Lynwood and graduated from South Gate High School, where he played trombone in the school's marching band.

He attended El Rancho High in Pico Rivera in 1996 and also lived with his stepsister, Andrea Jacobo, in Pico Rivera for several years.

He hoped to one day have a film career, but first wanted to do a stint in the U.S. Marines, said family members.

Much of his inspiration to join the military came from his uncle, Lou Salazar, a Vietnam veteran.

"Whenever he would walk into my mom's house in East Los Angeles, he would see my picture on the wall and say he wanted to be a Marine,' said Lou Salazar, during the reception at the community center. "We are proud of him, and we have assembled a big family reunion today to pay tribute to him.'

"And this war, that is similar to Vietnam, that is splitting the American people, I would like to see it end right away,' he said.