Posted on Wed, Nov. 02, 2005

Two soldiers from California National Guard killed in Iraq

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Two California Army National Guard soldiers were killed in Iraq when their Humvee hit a roadside bomb while taking school supplies and gifts to local children.

Capt. Raymond D. Hill, 39, of Turlock, and Sgt. Shakere T. Guy, 23, of Pomona, were killed in Baghdad on Saturday, said Lt. Toni Gray, a spokeswoman for the National Guard.

Both soldiers were part of the California Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 184th Regiment in Modesto.

Hill, who is survived by his wife and two children, was serving as a public information officer, Gray said.

Guy, a native Jamaican who emigrated to California, was an infantryman, Gray said.

The lieutenant said Hill's remains would be flown to Sacramento on Sunday, but it hadn't been decided when or where Guy would be repatriated. Memorial services would be sometime next week, Gray said.

The deaths put at 19 the number of California guardsmen killed since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, Gray said.

Nationally, more than 2,000 members of the U.S. military have died in Iraq.

Pomona man killed in Iraq
By Monica Rodriguez, Staff Writer

POMONA - Shakere Guy liked dancing, playing video games and teasing his mother.

The serious side of him looked forward to returning to Pomona from Iraq and continuing his studies in computer engineering, while spending time with his family and fiancee.

All those plans were wiped away when Guy died Saturday in Iraq.

The 23-year-old was killed when a roadside bomb detonated near his Humvee while he was on patrol in Baghdad, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

A sergeant, Guy was assigned to the Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment, which has been hit hard by insurgent attacks, suicide bombers and roadside bombs.

Guy is the second Pomona man to die in Iraq. Cesar Baez, a Navy hospital corpsman, was killed in June.

Donna Sanguinette said Guy, her youngest child, called her as often as he could. She said she's going to miss his voice and his playful joking.

"If he didn't get me in the morning before work he'd get me at night," she said Tuesday evening at her Pomona home. "Just playing tricks on me. I'll miss that."

He would call and when his mother answered the phone he'd ask for Mrs. Sanguinette. When she responded that it was her on the phone he'd say it was Shakere.

On Saturday, military officials came to her door and informed her of her son's death.

One of four people traveling in the Humvee, he was a passenger in the front seat. The other three were injured in the explosion. Guy was part of a mission that required "going into buildings and finding the bad guys," Sanguinette said.

Another soldier in a separate Humvee was also killed.

The Modesto-headquartered 1st Battalion had recorded 71 combat injuries and seven soldiers killed in action as of mid-October, more than any other California unit in Iraq, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Last Tuesday Guy called and spoke with his family for what turned out to be the final time.

"Tuesday he must have talked to everybody," Sanguinette said. "He said he's coming home and getting his own apartment."

A 2001 graduate of Pomona High School, Guy had been in Iraq for 10 months and was expecting to return home in December. He was about a month and half away from completing his tour of duty in Iraq and his commitment to the Army National Guard.

He was to have completed his commitment in September but his time in the service was extended, his mother said.

Sanguinette said her son's death was senseless.

"I could understand if my son had died on American soil or if he had died in Afghanistan. But for my son to die in Baghdad ... All because of President Bush and his ego trip," she said angrily.

"How can you liberate people (when) all they know is war?" she said.

Guy was born in Jamaica but became a U.S. citizen in July 2004, something he had looked forward to, family members said.

He joined the National Guard as a way to pay for his education. Before being called up to serve in Iraq he was able to complete a semester at DeVry University in Pomona and also worked at Home Depot's Mira Loma store.

But he was disappointed with the National Guard because it wasn't everything he'd been told it would be, Sanguinette said. He tried to transfer into the Navy, but that proved to be a complicated move filled with red tape.

In April, Guy came home for two weeks and relished the time with his family.

Then he had to return overseas.

"He wasn't as enthused to go back as when he was leaving for the first time," his mother said.

While at home he didn't speak about his experiences in Iraq.

"He was so closed in he wouldn't talk that much," she said.

Sanguinette said her son seemed to be constantly in harm's way -- always in the midst of fighting.

"Whatever it takes, get out of there alive," she recalls telling him.

Sanguinette said she's cried so much she can no longer shed tears and there are no words that can comfort her.

All she has at this point is her faith in God.

"I don't know when I'm going to heal," she said.

Monica Rodriguez can be reached by e-mail at m_rodriguezor by phone at (909) 483-9336.