MILITARY DEATHS

Marine Cpl. Carlos Pineda, 23, Los Angeles; Killed During a Rescue

By Jessica Gresko

Times Staff Writer

July 10, 2005

Marine Cpl. Carlos Pineda would have made a great U.S. history teacher, his wife says.

When he was in the sixth grade and his class would begin studying a subject, Pineda would come back the next day carrying a stack of library books, spouting what he had read.

"His favorite [TV] channel was the History Channel," said his wife, Ana.

Although the 23-year-old Los Angeles native had often thought he would become a police officer after his military service, Pineda sometimes talked about becoming a teacher, his wife said.

Pineda died June 24 as a result of wounds suffered from enemy small-arms fire in Fallouja, Iraq. He was rescuing casualties from a suicide bomb attack when he was shot, a military spokesman said.

Assigned to the 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C., he was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart.

Pineda, whom friends called "Cheese" because he liked cheese balls, was born in El Salvador and moved to the United States as a child. He was in the process of becoming a citizen.

His sixth-grade teacher, Jennifer Kerr, remembers that he spoke "proper Spanish," not the slang friends used, in addition to English and was always more mature than his peers.

When she and Pineda both moved to Stevenson Middle School, Kerr asked if he would translate for her at parent-teacher conferences.

Pineda translated at her conferences for the next six years, Kerr said, even after he moved on to Garfield High School. At least once he dashed back from football practice to help her, she said.

The two kept in touch when Pineda went into the military, something he had wanted to do even as a child. At one point, Kerr asked him if he would help a student who wasn't interested in school but liked coins. Pineda promised to send money from the countries he was visiting.

Another time, Pineda asked if Kerr's students could write to Marines who were homesick and not getting much mail. The students did.

Ana Pineda said her husband was always thinking of others.

The two met at his Camp Pendleton boot camp graduation in 2001. Pineda had become friends with his future wife's brother, Jose Luis "Joe" Quijada, during training.

The men were often thrown together in lines because their last names were near each other in the alphabet. When Quijada received a letter and photo from his sister, Pineda commented that she was pretty, a compliment that Ana Pineda said she brushed off when her brother told her. But something clicked when the two met at the boot camp graduation.

Pineda proposed on Oct. 11, 2002, at a restaurant in Texas while wearing his dress blues. The couple were married in December 2003 when he returned from Japan and before he was deployed to Haiti. Pineda also served in Afghanistan and extended his enlistment in order to join his unit in Iraq.

Ana Pineda said her husband was something of a romantic. The day before he died, she received a package from him — a gold charm with her name on it. A letter she received after his death said, "The Marine Corps may have my body, but you'll always have my heart."

In addition to his wife, Pineda is survived by his mother, Silvia Hernandez; his stepfather, Jose Luis Hernandez; a half brother, Jose Luis, 7; and a half sister, Natalie, 5.

Pineda was buried with full military honors July 1 at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier.

Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times