Daclan left CSULB to serve

Local student and Army medic, 24, was killed Friday.

By Chad Greene

Staff Writer

TORRANCE — Army Spc. Edgar Daclan Jr. was only about two semesters shy of finishing his bachelor's degree in engineering when he voluntarily gave up the peaceful, tree-shaded hills of Cal State Long Beach for the war-torn sands of Iraq.

There was no draft; he didn't have to go. But the way the Filipino immigrant saw it, there was no other choice.

"Edgar decided that he was needed, so he joined the Army. He knew what he was getting into. He knew there was a war," said his sister, Iris Daclan. "Because we're immigrants here, because this country has done so much for us … he wanted to serve the country."

About eight months into his tour of duty in Iraq, Daclan was scheduled to come back to Southern California on leave Sept. 25.

"Edgar is our only brother," Iris Daclan said. "We were so excited to see him."

But the 24-year-old combat medic attached to the 1st Infantry Division's 18th Infantry never made it home. He was killed Friday by an explosion in Balad, Iraq.

Daclan was born May 14, 1980, in Cebu City, Philippines. His family moved to the United States in 1993, living in Long Beach for about a year before settling in Torrance.

"We moved to America to have a better future, to have a better life," Iris Daclan said.

Education played a big part in the Daclans' plans for their six children's futures. In 1998, their only son graduated from Narbonne High School in Harbor City. He had completed three years of course work toward an electrical engineering degree at CSULB when he dropped out about a year and a half ago to enlist in the Army.

After completing basic training, Daclan was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division's 18th Infantry, stationed in Schweinfurt, Germany. In February, his unit was deployed to Iraq.

"His job as a combat medic was very dangerous," said Iris Daclan, a Navy veteran who served five years as a medical corpsman herself. "But he knew what he was there for: to do the job, to help the people of Iraq because they were suffering, and also to protect the United States from further terrorist attack."

Daclan called home as often as he could, but the last call his parents received was from one of his superior officers, who described their slain son as a "very special soldier' and said that he had never seen fear in Daclan's eyes.

Daclan is survived by his parents, Gertrude and Edgar Daclan Sr. of Torrance; and five sisters, Iris Daclan of Annapolis, Md., and Aileen, Ira, Sheila and Sunshine Daclan of Torrance.

Daclan will be buried at Riverside National Cemetery on Sept. 24. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Courtesy of U.S. Army

The memorial display for Spc. Edgar Daclan Jr. at a service in the chapel on Ledward Barracks on Wednesday. Daclan, 24, a medic from Cypress, Calif., was killed Sept. 10 in Balad, Iraq, when his patrol responded to indirect fire and was hit by a makeshift bomb.

Courtesy of U.S. Army

Members of an honor guard flank a memorial display for Spc. Edgar Daclan Jr. at a service in the chapel on Ledward Barracks on Wednesday.

Spc. Edgar Daclan Jr.