Soldier enlisted 'to access all his dreams,' but died in Iraq
David Toomalatai, 19, spent time with his baby son before tour as a medic. He is the youngest South Bay fatality so far.

By Andrea Sudano and Larry Altman
STAFF WRITERS

When he's old enough to understand them, 10-month-old Damien Toomalatai will watch his father's football highlight films from his days at Banning High School in Wilmington.

"I have lots of pictures," the baby's mother, Daniela Perera, said Tuesday. "He's going to know him. There's a lot of people to talk to him about his dad."

Damien's father, Pfc. David T. Toomalatai, a medic in the U.S. Army, died in Iraq on Friday when an ambulance he was riding in rolled over a land mine as he picked up injured soldiers, friends and family said. The 19-year-old Carson resident had been in Iraq less than three months.

Toomalatai, who shared the same April 2, 1987, birthday as his girlfriend, became the youngest South Bay resident to die in Iraq since the war began in 2003, and the first to die in 2007.

"It's so weird when somebody that you're used to seeing, and talking to, isn't there any more," said his 18-year-old sister, Savali Toomalatai, who spoke to him the day before he died.

"It sounded like he was very concerned and very scared," she said. "But at the same time, he held up to his part. He went to it full on. He really believed he was protecting the United States and protecting his family."

A 2005 graduate of Banning who played wide receiver on the varsity football team and lettered in volleyball, Toomalatai had hoped for a college athletic scholarship and a professional football career. But nearing graduation, he knew that dream wasn't to be, his sister said.

Attending community college and working at a pharmacy, Toomalatai decided to join the Army when he learned that Perera, his longtime high school sweetheart, was pregnant.

He decided he needed a full-time job and tuition to eventually go to college to become a physician's assistant, Perera said. The father-to-be wasn't troubled about going off to war.

"He wasn't worried," Perera said. "I kept telling him, 'Don't go.' He said, 'It's going to be good in the long run. When I come back, it will be all good. I'm going to school.' "

Mary Bane, Toomalatai's science teacher, said she spoke with the young couple when they told her their news.

"I think one of the reasons he joined the military was to be able to access all of his dreams," Bane said. "He was looking at the military as a way of, 'It's a great opportunity with the college money and the family support.' "


Just before he left for training, Toomalatai, an All-Marine League defensive end in 2004, visited his sister one last time during her shift at McDonald's.

"To him, he thought he was going to come back," the sister said. "He just gave me a hug and said, 'I'll see you soon.' I didn't want to cry in front of him."

Toomalatai left for boot camp at Fort Benning, Ga., on Dec. 28, 2005, trained to become a medic at Fort Sam Houston and eventually was stationed with the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood in Texas.

Unable to be at his girlfriend's side for their son's birth March 28, 2006, Toomalatai would come to know Damien through numerous photographs sent to him at the base. In September, the Army granted him a 10-day leave.

Finally, he held his nearly 6-month-old son for the first time.

"He was overwhelmed with the baby. He didn't know how to react. (The baby) was so big now," Perera said. "He was really happy, and he dedicated his time to the baby. He didn't want to go out."

Toomalatai sang to his boy, put him to bed, fed him and changed diapers.

On Nov. 1, Toomalatai's battalion was sent to Iraq. He wrote home, asking about his baby, saying he would come home soon.

Perera sent him care packages of Chips Ahoy! cookies and Twix candy bars.

On his MySpace.com page, Toomalatai wrote that he was in Camp Taji with the rest of the 1st Cavalry Division, "so we'll see you all soon."

He proudly wrote about his son.

"I've got a beautiful baby boy named Damien, who's my life," he wrote. "I'm pretty chilled and laid back for the most part, but you don't wanna piss me off."


The fourth of seven children, Toomalatai was very close to his large family, his sister said. His worst fear was something happening to a family member.

He was charismatic and sarcastic, but also loving and intensely competitive. He wouldn't think twice about spending $20 to try to beat his sister on air hockey games at a local arcade.

"I remember he always wanted his sons to play football just like him," his sister said. "He wanted more kids. He wanted a lot of things. I would say it wasn't his time, just because he had a lot of plans after he came back from Iraq."

Bane said Toomalatai impressed her in her physiology and Advanced Placement classes. Although he joked around, he was well-mannered and knew how to talk to adults.

"It's sad that he's gone. He had so much potential. Just tons," she said. "I always had a sense he was one of those students who was really going to go somewhere and do something. I'm really saddened at losing him so young."

The Toomalatai family received word of their son's death Friday when an Army representative appeared at their door. His Air Force veteran father kept up a brave face for the family.

His mother, who took the news badly, called his girlfriend.

"It's hard," Perera said. "Sometimes I sit there and I sit there, and I think about it. I think it's not true -- they made a mistake or something."

Funeral arrangements are pending.

andrea.sudano@dailybreeze.com; larry.altman@dailybreeze.com

Medic killed in Iraq was the father of an infant boy
Associated Press

CARSON, Calif. - Teen soldier David Toomalatai joined the Army to provide a future for his girlfriend and then-unborn son. Less than three months after arriving in Iraq, the medic was killed by a roadside bomb.

Toomalatai, 19, decided he needed a full-time job and tuition to eventually go to college to become a physician's assistant, said Daniela Perera, the mother of his 10-month-old son Damien.

The Army private wasn't troubled about going off to war.

"He wasn't worried," Perera said. "I kept telling him, 'Don't go.' He said, 'It's going to be good in the long run. When I come back, it will be all good. I'm going to school.'"

When he's old enough to understand them, Damien Toomalatai will watch his father's football highlight films from his days at Banning High School in Wilmington.

"I have lots of pictures," the 18-year-old mother said Tuesday. "He's going to know him. There's a lot of people to talk to him about his dad."

Toomalatai died in Iraq on Friday when an ambulance he was riding in rolled over a land mine as he picked up injured soldiers, friends and family said.

"It's so weird when somebody that you're used to seeing, and talking to, isn't there any more," said his 18-year-old sister, Savali Toomalatai, who spoke to him the day before he died.

"It sounded like he was very concerned and very scared. But at the same time, he held up to his part. He went to it full on. He really believed he was protecting the United States and protecting his family," his sister said.

His high school science teacher Mary Bane said the Army was a way for Toomalatai "to access all of his dreams."

Bane said Toomalatai viewed the military as "a great opportunity with the college money and the family support." ---

Information from: Daily Breeze, http://www.dailybreeze.com

http://www.myspace.com/djericho2k

This is David's myspace page.

BUSH : "THE CONSTIUTION DIDN'T STOP ME FROM LYING TO START A WAR IN IRAQ DID IT ??????? IT WON'T STOP ME FROM LYING TO START A WAR IN IRAN EITHER !!!!!!!!"

02/07/2007 GAAS:102:07 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gov. Schwarzenegger Issues Statement on Death of Long Beach Soldier

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today released the following statement regarding the death of Pfc. David T. Toomalatai, of Long Beach, CA:

“Private First Class Toomalatai’s brave sacrifice reminds all Californians to treasure the freedoms preserved by selfless soldiers like him. This brave soldier fought courageously so that others may enjoy the same liberties that Americans do everyday. Maria and I offer our condolences to David’s family and friends as they mourn their loss.”

Toomalatai, 19, died January 27 as a result of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during convoy operations in Taji, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, TX.

In honor of Pfc. Toomalatai, Capitol flags will be flown at half-staff.

© 2006 State of California

MILITARY DEATHS
Army Spc. Jeffrey D. Bisson, 22, Vista; among 4 killed in roadside blast
By Deborah Schoch
Times Staff Writer

February 18, 2007

After Jeffrey D. Bisson discovered how to hover in the air over his native Southern California, he never wanted to stop.

He bought the best skydiving gear, even a helmet with a camera on it. He would squeeze in every jump he could before the sun set. And he wanted those around him to dive with him.

"He would say, 'Come on, Mom, you have to do it.' And my husband would say, 'I'm not going to leave a perfectly good plane,' " said his mother, Laurie Bisson of Vista, where he grew up.

So instead he asked his new girlfriend, Rebecca, and she agreed to go sky diving with him a few days after Christmas 2005 in Eloy, Ariz. She got it.

"It's exhilarating. It's the feeling of just jumping out of the sky," said Rebecca, 19, who would marry him less than four months later. "Watching his face when I came down — he said, 'You had fun!' "

Bisson did 20 jumps in three days on that trip. One of them, filmed by Rebecca, is still posted on his http://www.MySpace.com Web page. It shows him and his friends jumping off the basket of a circus-hued hot air balloon.

"Some people say I am a little on the crazy side when it comes to the stuff I do for fun," he wrote on his site, "but, hey, I like to live my life on the edge a little."

In the end, Bisson's passion for adventure and sky diving helped propel him into the Army and then to Iraq.

On Jan. 20, he was among four soldiers killed when a roadside bomb exploded near their Humvee in Karmah, west of Baghdad. Bisson, 22, was in Iraq on a one-year tour, serving with the 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry (Airborne), 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Ft. Richardson, Alaska.

He was among eight Ft. Richardson paratroopers who died that day in two incidents, the largest number of deaths on a single day for troops from Alaska.

His MySpace site remains on the Internet, now filled with remembrances from friends and fellow servicemen. "RIP bro!!! You were an awesome man and the platoon is missing you so much," one soldier wrote. "I pray [you're] with the angels and are watching over us."

Bisson's parents trace his passion for outdoor adventure to his years as a Boy Scout.

"They did camping and fishing, went to many summer camps. Bows and arrows, swimming, hiking, biking, high adventure," his mother said.

Starting as a Cub Scout, Bisson achieved the honor of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Scouting. In his qualifying project, he worked with a team to build a drinking fountain outside a Salvation Army building where the Scouts met every week.

His wife thinks that Bisson's Scouting background helped prompt his decision to join the Army after graduating from Rancho Buena Vista High School. He wanted to travel the world, she and his mother said.

"His high school was right diagonal from the Army recruiters. They send the recruiters over to the high school to say, 'You're graduating. What do you want to do?' " his mother said.

He already had experience at two jobs, with FedEx and Cox Construction. But he also had a son from a former relationship. "I think the pressure of being an unwed father at an early age made him want to see other places," his mother said.

The Army led him to Alaska and Rebecca. Newly arrived at Ft. Richardson and eager for friends, he discovered her MySpace site. Rebecca still has the note he left for her.

"Hey, there, how's it going?" he wrote her on Aug. 24, 2005. "I just moved here from California in June, looking to meet some cool new people."

So Rebecca met him after her college classes four days later and they went to dinner. After that, she said, they were inseparable until he left for Iraq. He wanted to go fight, she said, because he wanted to ensure that Iraqis enjoyed freedom.

They were married on 3,510-foot-high Flattop Mountain near Anchorage in the mid-April wind with snow on the ground and the temperature in the 20s.

He wore jeans, a well-pressed T-shirt and a leather jacket. She wore jeans and a blouse.

"I was born and raised here," she said from the couple's Anchorage apartment, where her husband's voice is still on the answering machine.

They watched movies at home and went out to dinner, most often at Chili's. He asked constantly for chicken teriyaki for dinner, and she always made it for him. She couldn't say no.

His mother last talked to him the Saturday before he died. "You could just hear it in his voice, that he wasn't happy, that he wanted to be home," she said.

His wife last talked to him a few days later. "The last thing he said to me was, 'Did you ever get your belly button pierced?' " she said.

She has tried to go to Chili's, the last place they ate together, but couldn't. "I walked in and turned around and walked out," she said. "It was too hard."

He died just 10 days before he was due home on leave. "He would have been here now," his wife said.

In addition to his wife and mother, Bisson is survived by his father, Richard; a brother, Christopher, 18, of Carlsbad; and a son, Andrew, 4, from a previous relationship.

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deborah.schoch@latimes.com

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times

MILITARY DEATHS
Army Pfc. David T. Toomalatai, 19, Carson; killed by a bomb in Iraq
By Kenneth R. Weiss
Times Staff Writer

February 18, 2007

David T. Toomalatai told his high school sweetheart that he was joining the Army so he could better take care of their unborn son. His dream of a football scholarship failed to materialize, and he saw the military as his ticket to a college education in the medical field.

In his first months in Iraq, the 19-year-old medic was among three soldiers killed Jan. 27 when a roadside bomb exploded near their Humvee in Taji, north of Baghdad.

The death of the Samoan American, known for his smile and humor, has devastated his family in Carson and prompted the Banning High School community in Wilmington to mourn the loss of one of its own.

His funeral reunited the Class of 2005, bringing together former students, teachers, coaches and counselors, as well as friends and family, to honor a varsity football co-captain who was a standout on the field and in the classroom. The private first class was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

"It was one of the longest motorcades I've ever seen," said Mary Bane, who was Toomalatai's science teacher. "Even the general who was there representing the military was very moved."

Toomalatai's coach and former teammates scrawled farewell messages on a football that was placed on his coffin as it was lowered at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes. Others placed leis, symbols of his Samoan heritage.

Jeff Evans, his former coach and now Banning High's athletic director, provided the family with a football highlight videotape to keep for the soldier's son. At the end of the academic year, the high school will retire Toomalatai's football jersey, No. 80, and present it to the family.

Born in Torrance and raised as a young boy in Honolulu, Toomalatai returned to California with his large family at age 9. He was the fourth of seven children born to Vai and Sally Toomalatai. He played volleyball and football in high school and challenged himself with Advanced Placement classes.

After graduating in June 2005, he attended a semester at Harbor College in Wilmington when football scholarships didn't materialize. Soon he learned that he was to become a father.

"When I found out I was pregnant and I told him, he started saying he should go into the Army," said Daniela Perea, his longtime sweetheart. "I told him, 'Don't do that just because of us.' He had set in his mind that this was what he wanted to do."

He was following in the footsteps of his father, a retiree from the Army's 101st Airborne Division, who said, "I am so proud of my son."

Toomalatai missed the birth of his son while he was in training with the Army. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division at Ft. Hood, Texas.

On his personal Web page at http://www.MySpace.com , Toomalatai posted a slew of photos of the person he would most like to meet: his infant son. "I've got a beautiful baby boy named Damien who's my life," he wrote.

In September, he was granted a week's leave. He spent the week at home with his son, learning about feeding schedules, naps and how to burp the baby. A month later, he shipped out for Iraq.

"Mommy, everything over here is fine," he wrote in an e-mail from Camp Taji to his mother two days before his death. Toomalatai had just learned that his father had been elevated to the status of bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Tell my dad that I'm still saying my prayers," he wrote. "See you soon."

"It's the last thing I have from him," his mother said. He sent it on a Wednesday. That weekend, she was giving her grandson a bath when the doorbell rang. "I saw the military man standing outside. I grabbed my grandson and started crying."

Damien, now 10 months old, spends weekends with the grandparents. The happy baby has brought some measure of comfort to Savali Toomalatai, 18, who is struggling with the loss of her big brother.

"Damien has his father's smile," she said. "Looking at him is like looking at my brother."

In addition to his parents and Savali, Toomalatai is survived by his other siblings, Doreen, Elizabeth, James, Mara and Michael, as well as a large extended family.

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ken.weiss@latimes.com

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times