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Local Soldier Killed in Iraq

by DJ Monday, Jun. 12, 2006 at 10:56 AM

Army Spc. Luis D. Santos, of Rialto, who attended Fontana High School, died of injuries received when a bomb exploded near his vehicle during combat operations in Buritz, Iraq, June 8, 2006.

Local Soldier Killed...
luis_santos_of_rialto.jpg, image/jpeg, 200x241

Rialto soldier killed in Iraq

By Megan Blaney, Staff Writer
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

He liked shop class, loved cartoons and adored his family. He ran track and cross-country. His friends called him Toast.

Spc. Luis D. Santos, 20, joined the Army after high school and was deployed to Iraq in November.

He was supposed to be home at the end of the month, on a two-week leave.

Santos died Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded near where he patrolled in Buritz, Iraq, officials said.

"We were getting ready to have a little get-together," his mother, Irma Santos, of Rialto, said Friday. "Now it's going to be very different."

Before the bomb exploded near his vehicle, Santos -- not even old enough to legally drink -- logged his war experiences on MySpace.com, a social-networking Web site.

In a recent posting, he wrote:

"In june i will be home again, I am excited to be seeing my friends and family again. ... Can't wait,im so hyped up, just got to stay alive till next month."

The tone of his writing ranges from discouragement about the Iraqis' chilly reception to American soldiers and apprehension about his safety to optimistic musings about his family and future.

"i want to go home to mom cause i know how much she misses me.I can't wait to hug mama.Oh well, got to keep on keeping on," he wrote in May. "My family are my heros."

Santos kept in touch with his girlfriend through MySpace as well, and two days before he died, he sent her a message telling her not to worry.

"I am going to be gone for a few days so dont get upset if i dont write you in a while.I promise that as soon as i get back i will write you.ok baby i love you and i cant wait to see you.bye i love you."

Santos served as a cavalry scout in the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, which is based at Fort Carson, Colo., and is part of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson spokesman Lt. Col. David Johnson said. Soldiers assigned to cavalry scout duties traditionally ride ahead of their unit's main force on reconnaissance missions, Johnson said.

Pentagon spokesman Maj. Nathan Banks said Santos was a passenger in a Humvee with at least one other soldier when an improvised explosive device -- essentially a homemade bomb -- detonated near the vehicle. Santos died of his wounds on Thursday. He was the only soldier who was killed by the attack, and it was unclear if anyone else was wounded.

Banks said improvised bombs used by insurgents are the primary cause of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq.

Plans have not yet been solidified, but the family intends to bury Santos at Riverside National Cemetery.

"He wanted to make us proud and he did," his mother, Irma Santos, said Friday. "He wanted to experience something more and serve his country and become more mature as a person."

Teachers, staff and students at Fontana High School were reeling Friday from the news of Santos' death -- barely one month after another former Fontana High School student -- Sgt. Bryan Brewster, 24, was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

"This is getting to be real tough on our campus community," Principal Tom Reasin said. "We care about each other, and when we lose somebody it hits hard."

Fontana High School seniors are preparing for their graduation on Wednesday.

Santos' younger brother Eric is among them.

"He should be at a high point in his life and celebrating, but instead he's having to deal with loss," Reasin said.

Before his sister called Thursday with the tragic news, Eric was thinking about his graduation and his recent enlistment into the Army.

Then his cell phone rang.

Staff writer Andrew Edwards contributed to this report.
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PE Article

by DJ Monday, Jun. 12, 2006 at 11:07 AM

Rialto soldier killed two weeks before return

IRAQ: "I know he was proud of serving his country," said Irma Santos of her son.

10:00 PM PDT on Friday, June 9, 2006
By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

Irma Santos last heard from her son, U.S. Army Spc. Luis Daniel Santos, on Tuesday, when they e-mailed each other about preparations for his homecoming on June 23.

She wrote him about getting the backyard of the family home in Rialto ready for a party marking his return and his younger brother's graduation this month.

"He was just excited to come and was proud of his brother," Irma Santos said.

Two days later, Carlos and Irma Santos learned from the Army that their 20-year-old son, who went by his middle name Daniel, was killed Thursday in Iraq. An Army news release stated that he died from injuries he suffered when an explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations.

Santos, a Humvee driver, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, out of Fort Carson, Colo.

A banner with a picture of the young soldier hung in front of the family's home in a quiet Rialto neighborhood Friday, stating "In Loving Memory, Daniel Santos 1986-2006."

Irma and Carlos Santos described their son as a fun-loving person who loved to laugh. He enjoyed watching anime on the Cartoon Network and reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show."

A 2004 graduate of Fontana High School, he was on the track-and-field team and was engaged to be married to his high school sweetheart.

Santos joined the Army straight out of high school with a friend. He was sent to Iraq last November.

The family last saw him at Thanksgiving for a large family gathering. Carlos and Irma Santos said they already noticed a change in their son after a year and a half in the Army.

"He was more mature, more secure about what he wanted to do," Irma Santos said.

Daniel Santos, who has an older brother and sister, Carlos Jr. and Amy, along with a younger brother, Eric, was excited about what he was learning in the Army, Irma Santos said.

"I know he was proud of serving his country and our whole family is also very proud," she said.

Reach Imran Ghori at (909) 806-3061 or ighori@PE.com
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Rocky Mountain News Article

by DJ Monday, Jun. 12, 2006 at 4:18 PM

Soldier wanted to better his life
By Ivan Moreno, Rocky Mountain News
June 10, 2006

When Carlos Santos looks at photos of his son, taken before and after he joined the military, he can't help wondering why his boy didn't come home.

"I thought he would be one of the soldiers who would return," Santos said Friday in Spanish in a phone interview from his home in Rialto, Calif.

His son, Spc. Luis D. Santos, 20, died June 8 in Buritz, Iraq, when a roadside bomb detonated near his Humvee, the Department of Defense said Friday. Santos was assigned to the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson.

"I have no choice but to accept it," Carlos Santos said about his son's death.

Luis Santos joined the Army because he wanted to learn new skills, get a job, and fend for himself, his father said. Looking at pictures of his son at home, the 53-year-old father described one of Santos before the Army, skinny and with long hair, and another after joining the military, more serious, short hair, and a stronger build.

On the Web site Myspace.com, Luis Santos wrote about being in Iraq, his fiancee and why his friends called him "Toast."

He wrote in his profile: "They call me that cause im dark like toast or because its short for Santos, im not really sure which one though.

"besides being away from my friends and family i am having a pretty good time out here working with my fellow soldiers," he wrote. "Dont get me wrong, i still want to go home but there is something about being here that attracts me."

Carlos Santos recalls his son was nervous before he was deployed to Iraq in November.

"He was always a worrier," he said.

But over time, Santos said his son began to enjoy his stay in Iraq, though he was looking forward to coming home.

In one of the last entries in his Myspace blog, Luis Santos wrote about going home.

"Its gonna be a long trip home but it will defanitly be worth it. Can't wait, im so hyped up, just got to stay alive till next month."

Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
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As long as the US remains in Iraq there'll be plenty of Articles like this one

by The Bush Pro War Machine Wednesday, Jun. 14, 2006 at 3:35 AM

As long as the US remains in Iraq, you'll be reading Articles like this one, more and more often. And you'll see more Massacures of Iraqi Civilians by US Troops and US backed Death Squads.
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Blackanthem Military News Article

by DJ Tuesday, Jun. 20, 2006 at 1:21 PM

Blackanthem Military...
tokens_for_luis_santos.jpg, image/jpeg, 500x325

Silver Lions remember Santos

Blackanthem Military News, BAQUBAH, Iraq, June 15, 2006

A memorial for a Soldier from Headquarters and Headquarters Company attached to Company A, 1-68 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, took place Sunday in Forward Operating Base Warhorse near Baqubah, Iraq.

Cpl. Luis "Toast" Santos, gunner, HHC attached to Co. A, 1-68 CAB, was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle June 8.

"In a time and place where our nation has committed its very best to fight the war on the terror, Cpl. Luis Santos represented the finest of what our country stands for," said Lt. Col. Thomas Fisher, commander, 1-68 CAB. "His spirit, heart and his soul were of the highest moral fabric, cut from a unique bolt where valor, honor and commitment are seldom equaled."

Santos enlisted in the Army in the summer of 2004. After completing basic and scout training his first duty assignment was to HHC, 1-68 CAB, at Fort Carson, Colo. Santos was selected to be a gunner and it was the job he held while deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom 05-07.

Before being deployed Santos asked his girlfriend Vanessa Mota to marry him, a topic that was discussed in a tribute by his friend Sgt. Jordan Savor, HHC attached to Co. A, 1-68 CAB.

"I remember when you were first thinking of asking your girlfriend to marry you," said Savor. "When you did ask her you sent me a text message all the way from California to tell me she said yes. You wanted so bad to make her happy. Everyone knew you loved her very much. You impacted my life and the lives of everyone around you in a way that we will never forget .. You were a true Soldier and you lived by all of the Army values."

Values that Santos not only lived but believed in according to his friend Spc. Anthony Chicoine, HHC, 1-68 CAB, who spoke in the second part of Santos’ tribute.

"When asked why he joined the Army, he didn’t say for the college money, or ‘I needed a job or I wanted to see the world,’" said Chicoine. "He said, ‘because it’s something I believe in’ and that is what makes a hero."

Some of Santos’ awards include the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Army Commendation Medal. He is survived by his parents, Carlos and Irma Santos, his brothers Carlos and Eric, sister Amy and fiancé Vanessa Mota.

By Pfc. Paul J. Harris
3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office

PHOTO CAPTION:
Tokens of remembrance were left for Cpl. Luis "Toast" Santos, gunner, Headquarters and Headquarters Company attached to Company A, 1-68 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, by his fellow Soldiers during a memorial ceremony at Forward Operating Base Warhorse near Baqubah, Iraq.(U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Paul J. Harris, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office, June 11, 2006)
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The Devil (Bush): "Sorry to Oil the Flag Draped Coffins and Lost Limbs but Oil comes

by The Devil (Bush) Tuesday, Jun. 20, 2006 at 11:02 PM

The Devil (Bush): "Sorry to Oil the Flag Draped Coffins and the Lost Limbs but Oil comes First. Fill her Up ?????"
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Link to Funeral Report

by DJ Thursday, Jun. 22, 2006 at 12:32 PM

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/06/165689.php
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