Posted on Thu, Oct. 13, 2005

Pasadena Marine killed in Iraq

Associated Press

PASADENA, Calif. - Marine Lance Cpl. Sergio Escobar had a rough time in high school, running with a tough crowd and dropping out before finishing at a continuation school.

But after he joined the Marines, things changed, his stepfather said Tuesday, days after learning Escobar, 18, was killed by an explosive device set by enemy forces in Ramadi, Iraq.

In the year after Escobar joined the service, he apologized to his family for his teenage rebellion and began to spend more time with his 7-year-old sister and 3-year-old brother.

"He changed a lot. When he graduated from boot camp, he was totally different. He was real nice, the way he would talk to me with a lot respect," Ricardo Ortiz of Pasadena said.

Escobar was killed in the explosion Oct. 9, roughly two months after he arrived in Iraq. He was assigned to India Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division from Twentynine Palms. As part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he was attached to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

A native of Vera Cruz, Mexico, Escobar came to the United States with his mother, Patricia, when he was 3. He returned to Mexico to live with his grandmother after his mother and Ortiz married, eventually returning to live with them in Pasadena.

Shortly before he left for Iraq, he married his girlfriend Sophia Conchas.

Ortiz said the family was hoping to honor Escobar's love of classic cars by getting friends to drive them during his funeral.

"He used to tell me if I ever die, I want you to take me in one of those classic cars, like a Chevy Impala," Ortiz said.

Ortiz said he and his wife didn't want their son to join the military.

"I said 'why don't you go to college?'" he recalled, but he added that Escobar, who had participated in the ROTC in high school, had his heart set on the service.

"He was tough. He wanted to show he was tough. He was a leader," Ortiz said.

Funeral services were pending.

Young Marine Mourned

Pasadenan killed just a month after going to Iraq

By Kimm Groshong, Staff Writer

PASADENA -- Lance Cpl. Sergio Escobar, a 2004 Rose City High School graduate who shipped out to Iraq just last month, was killed by a roadside bomb in Ar Ramadi on Sunday.
The Department of Defense statement said Escobar died "while conducting combat operations against enemy forces."

Two of Escobar's best friends joined his parents and siblings at the family's Northwest Pasadena home on Wednesday. A poster board filled with pictures showed a happy youngster who often had a smile on his face.

Those close to the 18-year-old Marine say Escobar will be remembered for his love of life and the military as well as his devotion to his family and friends. They described him as a "crazy guy" who always wanted to spend time with his friends but who also worked at The Foot Locker in high school to help support the family. And he took every chance to spoil his little sister and brother, Samantha and Junior.

"He loved children," said Patricia Escobar, Sergio's mother. "One time he told me, ‘Mommy, your children have everything. But in this country (Iraq), the children have nothing. I want to go. I'll help a little bit.' "

Marisol Farfan, one of Sergio's best friends, said Escobar was active in the ROTC program when he attended Pasadena High School. She said he enjoyed being on the rifle team and idolized the Gunnery Sergeant, a man named George Johnson who the students know as "Gunny."

"He wanted to follow him," Farfan said. "He liked discipline."

Escobar's father, Ricardo Ortiz, said Sergio wasn't afraid of anything and knew he wanted to join the Marines from early in high school.

"Honestly, I didn't think I really wanted him to go over there. I didn't really want him to join the military at all. But it was something I wouldn't take away from him," he said. "He was really proud of his uniform."

Escobar signed up for the Marines in September 2004 and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment based in Twentynine Palms. He left for Iraq on Sept. 10.

Although he only attended Rose City High School for a short period of his senior year, Escobar was known as "a very respectful student," said Gary Roggenstein, the school's new principal. He said staff and faculty knew Escobar as "a quality character, the kind of student who comes back and visits and cares about others."

To his friends, Escobar was someone who would always support them, through thick or thin. "He always thought about everybody else before himself," Farfan said.

And he wanted his siblings to see him as a strong role model. Ortiz said six-year-old Samantha and two-year-old Junior watch Sergio's bootcamp graduation video all the time and like to pretend they're in the Marines. "I hope they get that our of their brains," he said, "especially now."

Ortiz said, "I don't think (Sergio) would really want us to be crying. But it's hard."

The family is finalizing details of the memorial services.

Escobar is the second area resident to be killed in Iraq in the past five months. Lance Corporal Dion Whitley of Altadena was killed in June near Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad.

-- Kimm Groshong can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4451, or by e-mail at kimm.groshong@sgvn.com.

Copyright © 2005 Pasadena Star-News

Photo Caption:
PATRICIA ESCOBAR, right, Sergio Escobar's mother, and his stepfather Ricardo Ortiz hold a photo of their son, who was killed in combat in Iraq on Sunday. He had shipped out just last month. (Staff photo by JOHN KENNEDY)

It is interesting how you get two different perspectives on Marine Lance Cpl. Sergio Escobar from the Mercury News article and the more localized Pasadena Star News Article. With one, you get a sense of a troubled youth who found a sense of purpose in the marines. In another, you get a sense that Mr. Escobar was a good kid with some problems that took pride in his military service against the wishes of his parents. This example is also good for analyzing the social forces that influence our youth into joining the military, but there is a missing link here in both articles.

As a resident of Altadena, who lives on the border between Northwest Pasadena and Altadena (not far from JPL), I am familiar with the working class and lower middle class communities here, which are predominantly African American and Latino. So its no suprise that the two casualities from this area are an African American and a Latino. I also know that there is drug trafficking and gang violence in this area, and there are many hard-working people working in this community who have struggled to escape poverty. In such an environment, where there are few options and opportunities, and a teenager's manhood is defined by his rep on the streets, the military provides an opportunity to emancipate one's self from this situation and recuperate one's masculinity if that is an issue.

The words of his father are profound (although they didn't have an impact on a young man who felt he found something that disciplined and empowered him) and hopefully Cpl Sergio Escobar's little brother and sister will grow to understand the lesson of their older brother's death.

Military recruitment is currently at an all time low. There is hope, but there needs to be more opportunity for youths that give them more options that appeal to their development as people, without sending them off blindly to a war based on lies.

MILITARY DEATHS

Marine Lance Cpl. Sergio Escobar, 18, Pasadena; Killed in Roadside Bombing

By Patricia Ward Biederman
Times Staff Writer

October 23, 2005

Lance Cpl. Sergio Escobar of Pasadena used to tell his father that a Marine who doesn't go to Iraq isn't a Marine. Escobar arrived in Iraq last month.

Stateside, he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Twentynine Palms, Calif. As part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, his unit was attached to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).

On Oct. 9, Escobar was killed when a roadside bomb exploded during combat in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. He was 18.

A 2004 graduate of Rose City High School, he was a good student, said teacher Nancy Swartz.

He needed to finish a history course in summer school before he could get his diploma, and Swartz was his teacher. "He was a real fun-loving person" with genuine charisma, she said. "People liked being around him."

Not many Rose City graduates enter the military, Swartz said. But when Escobar signed up for the Marine Corps in September 2004, "he was so proud and so excited," she said.

Swartz said she knew that some of the adults in Escobar's life had tried to talk him out of joining the military in wartime.

"War is war, and people die, and you don't want your kids to be put in that position," she said. "But I don't even think he had a fear of that. That was something he was willing to risk as part of the package."

Ricardo Ortiz had been Escobar's de facto father since Ortiz fell in love with Escobar's mother, Patricia Escobar, when the boy was 4 years old.

Escobar, who was born in Orizaba, Mexico, always referred to Ortiz as Papi. "He was a real good boy," Ortiz said.

Escobar was especially devoted to his sister, Samantha, 6; and brother, Junior, 2.

When Escobar was in high school, besides playing football, he worked at Foot Locker. As a result, he was able to keep his younger siblings in the latest sneakers and sportswear.

He played with the children, read to them and helped Samantha with her homework.

Swartz remembers how devoted Escobar was to his family, especially Samantha. She is devastated by her brother's death, Ortiz said. She still asks when he is coming home.

Ortiz said the family tries to ease Samantha's pain.

At Escobar's funeral Oct. 19 at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Hollywood Hills, they explained to her that he was being put in the earth "like a flower," Ortiz said.

On weekends, Escobar would make it a point to have breakfast or lunch with his family.

"That was his thing," Ortiz said. "He would say, 'I'll spend some time with you guys, and then I'll go out with my friends.' "

When he became a Marine, Escobar acquired a new group of friends whom he liked to bring home with him. "One time my truck was full of soldiers," Ortiz said with a chuckle. Escobar warned Ortiz to leave his mother at home so there would be room in the truck for half a dozen of his Marine buddies.

Escobar wanted to make the Marine Corps his career: "Honestly, he would always say he would never come out of the military," Ortiz said.

Since Escobar went to Iraq and couldn't socialize with his family on weekends, he would call home instead.

Ortiz last spoke to him Oct. 7, a few days before the bomb went off in Ramadi. "He told me, 'I'm OK. You don't have to worry about me. I'm coming home soon,' " Ortiz said. "Which he did."


Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times