FONTANA: "All that we regret is that his life was cut so short," his sister says.

By JULIE FARREN
The Press-Enterprise

Fernando Tamayo always wanted to be a Marine.

Alejandro Tamayo, 31, said his brother's favorite movie was "Full Metal Jacket." Adriana Zamayoa, 33, remembers her baby brother telling her two sons to give him 30 push-ups.

Mario Tamayo, 29, a former Marine, said it only took Fernando six months to become a lance corporal.

"He was born to wear the uniform," he said.

Fernando Tamayo, 19, of Fontana, died wearing that uniform Dec. 21 when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq's Anbar province. He was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based in Twentynine Palms.

His funeral is set for 2 p.m. Tuesday at Forest Lawn in Covina. After the Mass and military honors, Mario Tamayo Sr. said mariachi music will play in honor of his son.

The Tamayo family gathered Saturday to remember the young man they called Fernie, a 2005 Bloomington High School graduate.

Fernando always had a smile on his face. He was a loving young man who adored children, going to movies at Ontario Mills with his brothers and eating at Claim Jumper. He played baseball with the Southridge Little League and was a huge fan of the Dodgers.

Mario Sr. said Fernando was 17 when he enlisted last year in the Marines -- a decision he and his wife, Martha, supported.

The family said Fernando left for Iraq on Sept. 2, sad that he had to miss his brother Mario's wedding two weeks later.

But it was the day of Alejandro's wedding, Dec. 23, that the family's happiness turned to grief upon learning Fernando had been killed in Iraq.

Alejandro and his wife, Adriana, were married soon after.

"I was basically like a zombie," Alejandro Tamayo said. "I don't know how I got the strength to stand up there in the church, but I did it for my brother."

Mario Sr. said their lives will never be the same without Fernando but they are proud of their son and his patriotism.

"All that we regret is that his life was cut so short," his sister, Adriana, said.

Reach Julie Farren at 909-806-3066 or jfarren@PE.com

© 2007 The Press-Enterprise Inc.

Yet another young Hispanic gives his life for this disgusting unjust "war".

How many Minuteklan/ SOS members can say the same?????

If we can't keep 'our' government from feeding our kids into the meat grinder and toxic field lab by pulling general strikes and boycotts and raising our voice, we deserve to suffer the results of the new fascism in full deadly bloom. For the 'Homeland'. They will die for the Homeland.

We will tacitly agree to the serpent of a police/terror state.

MILITARY DEATHS
Marine Lance Cpl. Fernando Tamayo, 19, Fontana; among 4 troops killed in blast
By Janet Wilson
Times Staff Writer

January 7, 2007

A few days before Christmas, a neighbor noticed two men in military uniforms knocking repeatedly at the Tamayo family's darkened front door in Fontana.

She told them that the family was at a wedding in Mexico, and asked if something was wrong. They said they needed to speak to the parents of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Fernando Tamayo, 19, as soon as possible.

The neighbor phoned the Tamayos at once.

The call "gave us an awful, gut feeling that something was wrong with our brother," said Tamayo's sister, Adriana Zamayoa, 34, of Las Vegas. "We thought, 'We've got to get back home.' "

The airports were jammed with holiday travelers. But military officials said they had to speak with Mario and Martha Tamayo in person. The couple waited anxiously for six hours for a flight back to California, reaching home at 1 a.m. Dec. 23.

Shortly afterward, they received the news: Their youngest son was among four troops killed Dec. 21 when a roadside bomb exploded near their Humvee in Iraq's Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad. Tamayo was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Twentynine Palms, Calif.

The wedding of Tamayo's brother Alejandro, 31, went on as planned the afternoon of Dec. 23 while his parents waited for family members to return from Mexico.

On Christmas Day, Tamayo's sister said she and her brother Alejandro flew home into an airport "with all these people having these cheerful moments of reunion, and we had just this feeling of utter sadness."

Fernando Tamayo was "determined" to be a Marine from the age of 9, she said, when he saw graduation ceremonies in San Diego for his older brother Mario, now 29, in full Marine dress.

Born Feb. 26, 1987, in Los Angeles, Fernando Tamayo graduated from Bloomington High School in Fontana in 2005 and promptly enrolled in the Young Marines program, designed to give potential recruits a taste of what it would be like.

"He had fun with it, and he decided to enlist," Zamayoa said.

His father, also named Mario and speaking in Spanish translated by Fernando's sister, said that he and his wife supported their youngest son's decision.

"When he told us, we were happy for his decision, [but] a little bit scared like every parent," he said. "Since the [Iraq] war had started, we were a little bit concerned, but like every parent we wanted him to be free to decide what do in life."

Tamayo was stationed at Twentynine Palms just as his older brother had been several years earlier. Within six months, he was a lance corporal, and on Sept. 1, two weeks before his brother Mario's wedding, he shipped out. His family held a big celebration, complete with a priest's blessing.

In letters and phone calls, he told his family and a special girl named Sonia not to worry, that he was safe.

"He never gave us anything but a feeling of security," Zamayoa said. "He would always tell us, 'I'm going to be fine…. I'm doing OK.' "

The day the family left for Mexico, Tamayo phoned to say how much he was going to miss seeing Alejandro's wedding, and how much he loved everyone. It was the last time his family spoke with him.

On Dec. 18, he wrote Sonia a letter saying that he was halfway through his stint in Iraq, and that he couldn't wait to get home and see her, "his queen."

Days later, his parents received the awful news. Tamayo was given a full military funeral and Mass on Tuesday at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Covina Hills. His parents were given a U.S. flag and his Purple Heart. Afterward, his favorite mariachi band played.

"I have no regrets," his father told mourners. "When you have children, you let them be free to choose whatever they want in life.

"For me," he added, "I think I'll never be able to recover."

Tamayo's family recalled his quick humor, sense of responsibility and concern for his mother when she was recovering from cancer. Now, his mother is consumed with grief over her son's death.

"We let her scream, to try to take the sorrow out," his sister said. "We have a lot of pictures, and we have a lot of memories, so we feel like he is right here with us in some ways."

On Thursday, Tamayo's father thanked neighbors, friends and local businesses for the food and gifts given to the family.

"Thank you for honoring my son. He was a very courageous young man who gave his life for this country…. We are honored by what he did," said his father, a truck driver who is trying to find the strength to return to work. "We have to get back on track somehow. We have to get back to work, to our lives, to honor his memory."

Tamayo will be cremated and his ashes will be saved for burial at "a sacred place" that will be selected later by his parents.

"Right now, they want to bring their baby home," his sister said. "He was the light of this house."

*

janet.wilson@latimes.com

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times

'We lost something bigger than we can take'

Family, friends support parents of fallen soldier

By George Watson, Staff Writer
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

FONTANA - Two hours before the sun rose Tuesday, Mario Tamayo Sr. pushed himself out of bed. He had to ready himself for something every parent loathes and fears: his son's funeral.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Fernando S. Tamayo, 19, was killed Dec. 21 when a roadside bomb exploded next to the Humvee he drove in Iraq.

"I tell people our pain is too deep because we lost something bigger than we can take," Tamayo Sr. said.

Since learning of their son's death just hours before they were to watch another son's wedding ceremony in Mexico, the Tamayos have sought to survive this ordeal. Family and friends have rallied around them. Neighbors drop off piles of food. The Marines call to offer help.

The Tamayos find solace in kind words, the hero-like treatment their son received from the military and law enforcement personnel after his death, and knowing that their boy died doing what he craved - serving his country.

"I know our family will never be the same," said Fernando's sister, Adriana Zamayoa, 33. "But I know by keeping his memory alive, we will be better people for our community, for our children, for our nephews and our nieces."

The Tamayo home is full of memories. Tamayo Sr.'s favorite place to eat - a center island in the kitchen - has been transformed into a shrine of pictures, Fernando's baby bib and his white baptism outfit that his parents kept for when he had his own child.

Photos adorn almost every wall. Military memorabilia fills his bedroom, and camouflaged netting covers a window. A photocopy of his final letter to his girlfriend rests in a china cabinet. Atop that is a Father's Day card he made at age 7.

On Tuesday morning, family members filled the home. Fernando's mother, Martha, stayed upstairs getting dressed in black. Tamayo Sr. watered plants out front.

He contemplated what awaited his family before the 2 p.m. funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Covina.

"It's the last time we can see his body," Tamayo Sr. lamented.

Zamayoa added, "It's the last time to say goodbye."

The Tamayos are thankful that their son's body was at least able to be viewed in an open casket.

The other three Marines who died in the same attack were less fortunate, Tamayo Sr. said.

Tamayo Sr. thought for a moment, and then shared a recent discussion he had with his wife. His eyes glistened as he spoke.

"We say to God, `Thank you for letting us be parents to Fernando,"' he said.

Tamayo Sr. doesn't know where these coming weeks will take his family. He and his wife need each other greatly. On this morning, she wept often, and at one point, sat and sobbed as her husband held her shuddering body.

He knows he has to return to his hometown in Mexico, a village of 6,000 people near Guadalajara. Tamayo Sr. and his wife left their sport utility vehicle there, having flown out on the first flight once they heard that men in military uniforms kept knocking on their front door.

The main task in the next few days will be to return to the mortuary and take their son home. The family decided to cremate Fernando because they have no real ties to the area, and if they move, burying him here would seem like abandoning him.

The Tamayos plan to find the proper place for their son. For now, though, they just aren't ready to let him go.

Copyright © 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group