Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality. ~Emily Dickinson
I Got the News Today (IGTNT) is a diary series intended to honor service members who have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one.
The beautiful forget me nots created by llbear.
Since 2003 there have been 4426 US casualties in Iraq and since 2001 there have been 1347 US casualties in Afghanistan. Source.
Tonight we honor:
Staff Sgt. Carlos A. Benitez, 24, of Carrollton, Texas.
Spc. Rafael Martinez Jr., 36, of Spring Valley, Calif.
Pfc. Tramaine J. Billingsley, 20, of Portsmouth, Va.
All three were assigned to the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
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Imelda Castillo painfully remembers receiving a call from her daughter to come home from her job in Farmers Branch on Thursday. There was a military man at the house with bad news: Castillo's son had been killed in Afghanistan.
Army Sgt. Carlos A. Benitez, 24, of Carrollton died Thursday from wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.
"It's like a part of me left," Castillo said of her feelings when arriving home to receive the news from the military official.
Benitez was married and had a 6-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, Castillo said. He also had two siblings.
Castillo said that her son, a graduate of Creekview High School in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district, was dedicated to the Army. She said that he wanted to enlist when he was 17 but that she refused to sign paperwork allowing him to do so. He joined when he was 18.
"It's what he wanted, to be in the Army," Castillo said.
Benitez served two tours in Iraq before being sent for a third in Afghanistan, she said. Leaving his wife to go on his last tour was difficult, she said.
Castillo said that she had seen news on TV of soldiers being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and never thought of it happening to her son.
"Now I understand what it really feels like," she said.
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Army Spc. Rafael Martinez Jr. was the child of immigrants, said Jose Martinez, his uncle.
"My nephew was a good heart," he said. "He enlisted in the Army, nobody made him. He did it himself. Everybody was proud of him."
Rafael Martinez Sr. has told San Diego-based media outlets in recent days that he didn't want his only son to join the Army, that he worried about his safety.
But in 2007, at age 33, Martinez enlisted. He served his first tour of duty in Iraq where he was injured in a bomb blast. His second tour began several months ago.
Jose Martinez said he believes his nephew enlisted to prove the strength of his character to family and friends.
"He didn't have to go to the Army, he was doing good," Jose Martinez said. "He chose to be in the Army ... to show us who he really was."
In Afghanistan, Martinez worked as a cavalry scout, a dangerous job in which he gathered and reported information on terrain, and on insurgents' equipment and position.
Jose Martinez said he last spoke to his nephew just before his first deployment.
"I talked to him before he left, I talked to him on the phone," Martinez said. "I told him, 'Sobrino (Nephew), you picked your choice. I'm very proud of you, Buddy. But please, go where you have to go, but I want you to come back alive. People are waiting for you.'"
He said his nephew replied, "OK, Tio (Uncle). OK. Si, si, si, Tio."
Rafael Martinez Jr. is survived by his wife and a young daughter and son. They live in Spring Valley.
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From the Facebook tribute to Pfc. Tramaine J. Billingsley. we learn that it was almost a given that Billingsley would join the military. His father served 21 years before retiring. His older brother, Trevon, was in the Army and his twin, Tramal, was in the Navy.
"We're a military family," his sister Shatara Billingsley said. "He followed his older brothers and his father." Trevon Billingsley, who was also stationed in Afghanistan, served one month while his brother was there, his sister said. He returned home three weeks ago from a one-year tour, she added. The 20-year-old was continuing a family tradition by serving his nation. His twin brother, Tramal, serves in the Navy and is stationed in Italy.
Billingsley joined the Army in September last year and his unit in January. He was deployed to Afghanistan in July. "He loved his job, and he died doing what he loved," said Shatara Billingsley, the soldier's only sister.
Travis Billingsley, Tramaine's older brother, said he was a happy person, full of life, who could get along with anyone. The day before he died, Pfc. Tramaine Billingsley called home to Norfolk and spoke to his brother Travis. "We always talked on the phone," Travis said Friday. The subject was a common one for two brothers: Who was better at video games, and who was going to win the next time they played.
"There are not enough words that I can put together to describe the likability and charisma of this fallen soldier," his brother Terrance Chambers said in an e-mail.
Tramaine Billingsley has a large extended family in Hampton Roads. On Friday, a bugle played and the flag at Booker T. Washington High School was lowered and given to Billingsley's brother Trevon.
Pfc. Billingsley is survived by his mother, Zelda; sister, Shatara; and four brothers.
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Click here to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and is currently maintained by Sandy on Signal, noweasels, monkeybiz, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, a girl in MI, Spam Nunn, JeNoCo, Janos Nation, True Blue Majority, Proud Mom and Grandma, CalNM, Wide Awake in KY, maggiejean, racheltracks, kestrel 9000, JaxDem, and Cathy.
If you would like to contribute to the series, even once a month, please contact Sandy on Signal or noweasels.
To see what these tributes mean to those who have lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan, please read Sandy on Signal’s story about meeting the father of a soldier at NN10.
The IGTNT logo was created by Timroff.
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members chronicled here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.
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