OGDEN -- Juan Carlos Cabral was killed and buried far from the place he was born. And though the soldier will remain away from his birthplace of Jerez, Mexico, his body will stay in the country for which he died, the country which, in the end, adopted him.
During Wednesday's burial services for Cabral, a Mexican national who died a week and a half ago in Iraq, a U.S. Army official announced in Ogden that Cabral was awarded U.S. citizenship retroactive to Jan. 31 -- the day he was killed with two other soldiers in an explosion near Kirkuk.
The announcement was of no comfort to his grieving mother, Angela Cabral, who sobbed and said "No! No!" as she watched her son's coffin during the graveside service, led by the U.S. military and bolstered by a 21-gun salute.
At his burial place in Washington Heights Memorial Park, officials gave the soldier's family two medals: a Purple Heart -- his second -- for his injuries and a Bronze Star for meritorious service. They also gave them his U.S. citizenship certificate, which the family accepted as they cried and clutched rosaries and crucifixes.
"It doesn't signify anything," Angela Cabral later said about the certificate. "He should have received it when he was alive. Now, what for? He should have received all these honors, not us."
Soldier Cabral should be remembered for the things he did in life, not the way he died, his mother said.
He was shy, but always tried to do the right thing for his family and for others. He joined the Army to pay for college and to support his wife and children.
Dan Hassett, spokesman for Fort Hood in Texas where Cabral was stationed, said Cabral was a legal U.S.-resident when he enlisted.
"Citizenship, that was not the reason he joined," said his father Angel Cabral.
The Army gave him an education in mechanics, which he enjoyed, Angel Cabral said.
"He planned to stay [in the Army] until he retired," Angel Cabral said. "He said he really liked it and he was grateful."
Cabral also had been scheduled to be promoted to sergeant before he died; that promotion also was awarded posthumously.
But he also spoke of returning to Ogden one day, to set up an auto shop with family members.
The importance of family for Cabral was evident by the number of cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews who crowded into St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Almost 300 people attended the burial Mass and stood by his graveside to bid farewell. They came from places such as Kansas, California and Nevada. Angela Cabral was given a temporary leave from Weber County Jail to attend her son's funeral. She is awaiting sentencing on two minor charges.
Some relatives from Cabral's native Mexico wanted to come but were denied visas, Angel Cabral said.
Most of his friends from Ogden showed up, still troubled by the loss, they said.
Enrique Gonzales placed a red rose atop the silver-colored coffin. The two met as boys in the mid-'80s when Juan Cabral "was shy with the girls," Gonzales said.
They last spoke in the fall when Juan Cabral visited his wife and children in Texas. At that time, Cabral tried to visit Utah, which he considered home. But he ran out of time. "He said he was doing good and he was going to be home soon," Gonzales recalled.
It was hard to talk about Cabral -- who was more like a family member than a friend from the neighborhood, he said.
Quiet, but friendly, he once brought two soldiers -- who didn't have a place to call home -- with him to Utah. He wanted to make them feel they were part of his family, his mother said.
In the Army, they called him "Juanito," and "El Jefe Medio," or the middle boss. At home, they called him "Carlitos." Some relatives wore T-shirts bearing a photograph of Juan Cabral holding his first Purple Heart medal, which he received last year when he was injured by a grenade that exploded in a building where he was placing a call to home.
At St. Joseph's, where the soldier once served as an altar boy, the Rev. Hernando Diaz reminded others to think about the good deeds that came from Juan Cabral, his accomplishments and the religious faith that accompanied him during war.
Diaz comforted Cabral's loved ones, his widow Anita holding their 1-year-old son Manuel, son Fabian, 7, his parents and his brothers and sisters.
As during his graveside service, the tears wouldn't stop.
"We grieve and it's normal," Diaz said. "Tears and grief are an expression of love."
SGT Cabral-Banuelos was a member of Company A 4th Forward Support Battalion attached to 1-22 Infantry.
Killed when his vehicle was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device, while on convoy operations near Kirkuk, Iraq.
His home town was listed as Emporia, Kansas.
Emporia High grad killed in Iraq blast
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 3, 2004
Topeka — A 25-year-old who graduated from Emporia High School was among three soldiers who died in a weekend explosion in Iraq,
the Defense Department said Monday.
The department identified the dead as Cpl. Juan Carlos Cabral Banuelos, of Emporia; Sgt. Eliu Miersandoval, 27, of San Clemente, Calif.,
and Pfc. Holly McGeogh, 19, of Taylor, Mich.
(Editor's note: Cpl Cabral was posthumously promoted to SGT)
The department said the soldiers died Saturday when an explosive device hit their vehicle. They were in a convoy near Kirkuk.
The Defense Department said the three were assigned to Company A, 4th Forward Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas.
Cabral's cousin, Marisol Gomez, said her cousin was a native of Geres, Mexico. She said her cousin spent most of his childhood in Riverdale, Utah, and moved to Emporia with his family as a teenager.
She said her cousin was a popular student in high school who dreamed of enlisting in the Army after graduation.
He became an Army mechanic and was stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, before he was deployed to Iraq.
"When he was in high school that was one of his goals, to finish high school and graduate and go to the Army when he graduated," Gomez said.
"He said he liked it there (in the Army). It was difficult, but he liked it."
Gomez said he would be buried in Utah, where most of his family lives.
She said the soldier's death was extremely painful because in just a few weeks he would have been reunited with his wife and two young children.
Cabral's wife, Anita Cabral, 24, told the Standard-Examiner newspaper her husband was supposed to be coming home in 40 days.
"Nobody is ever going to forget him. We all love him," she told the Ogden newspaper from Texas.
The two were high school sweethearts who attended Ogden High School together and met at a young age.
"I've known him since I was 5 years old," Anita Cabral said.
The pair married in September 1998, a few months after Cabral enlisted.
"He was proud of his boys, proud of his family. ... I'm going to go back to Utah and raise my boys like he wanted me to," Anita Cabral said.
Juan Carlos Cabral will be posthumously awarded a Bronze Star, a second Purple Heart and a promotion to sergeant at a burial ceremony at Washington Heights Memorial Park in South Ogden. That will precede the 10 a.m. funeral at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Ogden.
Juan Cabral was born in Jerez, Zacatecas, Mexico, on Sept. 11, 1978, and moved to Ogden with his family a year later. He attended Ogden High School before moving to Emporia, Kan., with his mother during his junior year, after his parents had divorced.
He joined the U.S. Army soon after graduation. Cabral, who had been in Iraq since April 4 as a mechanic with Company A of the 4th Forward Support Battalion from Fort Hood, Texas, was scheduled to return home in about a month.
A Mexican national, the 25-year-old was also set to become a U.S. citizen in April.
Cabral was among three soldiers killed Jan. 31 when their vehicle struck a homemade explosive device near the northern city of Kirkuk.
He leaves behind his wife, Anita, and two young sons, ages 7 and 18 months old. They arrived in Utah from Texas on Friday.
Sgt. Juan Carlos Cabral Hero
My name is Veronica Ortiz I am Anita Cabrals sister. Anita sent me an e-mail saying that we can send pictures or poems to you so that you can place them on the web site. Well, I have a poem that I keep right here with me on my computer desk along with a picture of him beside it. It's called It's the Soldier by Father D.E. O'Brien
It's the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press.
It's the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech.
It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It's the soldier, not the lawyer, Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It's the soldier who salutes the flag, Serves under the flag, And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who gives the protester the right to burn the flag.
