• Christopher Bunda's family never gave up hope, even though he had been missing since a boat in which he was riding capsized Jan. 25.
Chris Barron
Sun Staff
February 11, 2004
The body of a Bremerton soldier missing in Iraq since Jan. 25 was found Tuesday, dashing his family's last hopes that he might be found alive.
The family of Staff Sgt. Christopher Bunda said Tuesday that they were notified by the Army that his body was found in the Tigris River near Mosul.
Bunda, a 1992 Olympic High School graduate, went missing after the boat he was riding in capsized on the Tigris. He was 29 years old.
Bunda's body was discovered a day after the Army had announced a $1,000 reward for information leading to his recovery. Up until the last, his family maintained hope he would be found alive.
"Everybody's taking it real hard," said Thomas Vigil, Bunda's stepfather of nearly 25 years.
"We were hoping that because the Army put a reward out for him that they would have better news, but evidently not."
Vigil said the Army told his family that members of the Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade found Bunda's body.
Bunda was a squad leader with the Stryker's 2nd Batallion, 3rd Infantry Regiment.
He leaves behind his wife, Michele, a 1995 Bremerton High School graduate, and two children, daughter Chrizchele, 6, and son Christian James, 3. Bunda's mother, Lita Vigil, also lives in Bremerton, as does a majority of both sides of the family.
The family gathered in seclusion Tuesday at the Bunda home in East Bremerton.
"His unit was the one who found him," said Thomas Vigil, who served 23 years in the Navy. "I'm glad his guys were the ones who found him because I know how close those guys are to each other. I knew it was important to them as well as the family that they find him."
Navy divers and Army engineers had been searching for Bunda every day in Mosul, where the Stryker brigade has taken over operations for the Army's 101st Airborne. The search for his body was a top priority for the Stryker brigade since his disappearance.
Bunda, a sniper, disappeared when the Iraqi police boat he was riding in capsized after it snagged on a low-lying line. He was on a river patrol to nab insurgents who had been firing mortar rounds at U.S. targets in the city.
With more than 500 U.S. servicemen killed in Iraq since the start of the war 10 months ago, Vigil said his son's death does not change his support for U.S. efforts in the country.
"It hasn't changed my opinion of why we are there," he said. "It's even maybe stronger about why we are there. I'm trying to convince everybody that he was there for the right purpose.
"You take the fight to the enemy. You don't wait until they come here. My son did that. I'm so proud of him."
Bunda's body will be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware today or Thursday. It then will be flown here by the end of the week, Vigil said.
The family will read Bunda's will in the next day or two to find out his request for burial. They will follow his wishes, Vigil said.
"We have to start the healing process," he said. "It's just a matter of getting over the shock. We have to get through our feelings and try to comfort each other as much as possible, stay strong and be there for each other. It's tough."
Bunda's death comes a little more than a week after his grandfather, Eugene Rowe, died of complications from a fall. Vigil said Bunda and his grandfather were extremely close.
"My stepson and I were just like my dad and I," Vigil said. "My dad was my stepfather who took care of me when I was in high school, too."
On Monday, before hearing the news of his death, Bunda's family was hoping to increase the reward the Army was offering for his return. Bunda's wife, Michele, admitted she hadn't gotten much sleep in the two weeks since her husband's disappearance.
Vigil said he hopes the recovery of his son's body begins the healing process for Michele.
"Hopefully, my daughter can sleep for a change," he said. "She hasn't had a good night's sleep for a long time. It's time for her to do that and try to cope."
Vigil, standing in his wife's Oriental grocery on Wheaton Way, said his family has been overwhelmed by the support the community has shown. The store is filled with flowers on the counter from well-wishers.
"We just want to thank the community," he said. "I had people stop in today from the shipyard, lending a hand and bringing food to my daughter so she doesn't have to cook.
"People have brought in flowers and cards. They have been great."
Asked what came to mind when he thought of his son, Vigil, holding back tears, said simply, "He was a good soldier, a good father and a good son."
He then paused, and added: "He died doing what he did best, and that's his job. He was a professional."
Lita Vigil, of Bremerton, pauses Tuesday while talking about her son, Staff Sgt. Christopher Bunda, who has been missing since Sunday, when his boat capsized in the Tigris River near Mosul, Iraq.
Rescuers continued to search the waters of the Tigris River near the northern Iraq city of Mosul yesterday for a missing Bremerton soldier and two helicopter pilots.
Staff Sgt. Christopher Bunda, 29, was one of four soldiers from the Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade who were on a river patrol with Iraqi police when their boat capsized Sunday. Three of the soldiers made it to shore. In the ensuing search for Bunda, a Kiowa helicopter crashed into the river; its two Army pilots from Fort Drum, N.Y., have not been found.
U.S. Navy divers joined Army engineers and Iraqi police in the search yesterday.
"We're using every available asset we have at this time," said Air Force Capt. Dave Malakoff, a coalition spokesman in Baghdad.
In Bremerton, Bunda's family has been staying close to the telephone, praying he's still alive but fearing the worst.
"It's so hard, because you just don't know," said his wife, Michele Bunda.
She had the task of explaining their "poppa's" disappearance to the couple's two children: daughter, Chrizchele, 6, and son, Christian James, 3.
"I don't think they can really understand yet," Michele Bunda said. "When I told them, my daughter said, 'Why did the boat flip over?' and 'Why didn't he hold on to the boat?' "
The little girl also asked why her father didn't have a job like other fathers, like being a doctor, Michele Bunda said.
Christopher Bunda's mother and stepfather have kept their Asian grocery store in Bremerton open, trying to stay busy while they wait for news.
Staff Sgt. Christopher Bunda, soldier on right, and an unidentified soldier are shown in a recent photograph with Iraqi children in Mosul, Iraq.
"Every time the phone rings, I'm scared," said Bunda's mother, Lita Vigil. "I'm scared they might tell me my son is gone."
Vigil began worrying Sunday when she saw CNN reports that a Stryker soldier was missing. "I jumped," she said. Friends told her not to worry, but at 3 a.m. Monday, her phone rang and an Army official delivered the news.
Bunda was born and raised in the Philippines. He moved to the United States in 1991 as a teenager to live with his mother. He graduated the next year from Bremerton's Olympic High School, his mother said.
He followed his stepfather, Thomas Vigil, into the Navy, but after a short stint switched to the Army, against his mother's wishes.
"I wanted him to stay in the Navy," Lita Vigil said. "It's safer. But he wanted to be in the action."
Bunda was a squad leader and a sniper in the Stryker brigade, which was deployed to Iraq in November. Before he left, he asked his mother to send Christmas care packages for his squad members who didn't have families. Lita Vigil dutifully complied, sending packages stuffed with cookies, popcorn, chocolate and other goodies to nine members of the unit.
According to The News Tribune of Tacoma, which has a reporter embedded with the Stryker unit, Bunda, three squad members and an interpreter jumped aboard an Iraqi police boat to search for insurgents who had fired mortar rounds at U.S. targets in Mosul.
The boat ran out of gas and drifted toward a power line, the newspaper reported. The soldiers ducked under the power line, but the boat got hung up and flipped over. The Stryker soldiers, four Iraqi policemen and an interpreter fell into the river. One policeman drowned and two others, along with Bunda, remain missing. Everyone else on board made it to shore, the newspaper reported.
The cause of the helicopter crash was being investigated, although military officials said they didn't think the craft had come under enemy fire.
The missing pilots were identified as: First Lt. Adam Mooney, 28, of Maryland; and Chief Warrant Officer Patrick Dorff, 32, of Minnesota.
Since deploying to Iraq, three Stryker soldiers have died, all when a pair of Stryker vehicles rolled into a canal Dec. 8.
Trust fund set up for family of soldier who was killed
BREMERTON — A trust fund has been set up at Washington Mutual for the family of Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Bunda, a soldier with the Fort Lewis-based Stryker Brigade, who disappeared in the Tigris River after the boat he was in capsized Jan. 25.
His body was later recovered.
He lived in Bremerton with his wife, Michele, and a young daughter and son. Donations can be made at any Washington Mutual branch by requesting to donate to Michele Bunda's account.
Our Hearts are with you Michele
Michele Bunda touches the flag-drapped coffin of her late husband Staff Sgt. Christopher Bunda during the Rosary before Mass at the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Bremerton, Wash., Friday, Feb. 20, 2004. Bunda, from Bremerton, Wash., was killed on Jan. 25, 2004, when a boat he was riding capsized on the Tigris River in Iraq . (AP Photo/Jim Bryant)
• Staff Sgt. Christopher Bunda of Bremerton was laid to rest three weeks after his death in Iraq.
Chris Barron
Sun Staff
February 21, 2004
As the bright sun burst through the clouds, a bugler blew "Taps" in the cool breeze of the afternoon.
The sound of the haunting song brought an end Friday to an exhausting and painful three-week ordeal for the family of Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Bunda, who died in Iraq on Jan. 25.
Tears flowed from family and friends who surrounded Bunda's American flag-draped coffin.
A hero from Bremerton was laid to rest.
Bunda, 29, a squad leader in the Fort Lewis-based Stryker Brigade, died during a mission on the Tigris River. He drowned after the boat he was riding in capsized.
Before he drowned, however, he tried to save an Iraqi policeman who was also riding in the boat.
It was Bunda's heroism, his service to his country and, most importantly, his devotion and dedication to his family that was remembered Friday.
Hundreds of community members packed his funeral and graveside ceremony. The local Filipino community attended in force to honor one of their own.
During the funeral at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Bunda's two children, daughter Chrizchele, 6, and Christian James, 3, ran through the pews with smiles on their faces. They played with cousins and blew bubbles with their gum, something they learned to do this week.
So young, the children were unable to grasp the solemnness of the moment as their father's body laid in the coffin in front of them.
Bunda's wife, Michele, lovingly touched her husband's coffin throughout the service, comforting him with light strokes.
And as Bunda's coffin was removed from the church by fellow Fort Lewis soldiers, the choir, and dozens in the audience, sang a song in his native language of Tagalog, "Hindi Kita Malilimutan," meaning "I'll never forget you."
The long funeral procession to Miller-Woodlawn Memorial Park received an escort from the Bremerton Police Department as a way to honor Bunda's service. Police rarely escort funeral processions, but made an exception for Bunda, who served in the Navy and Army.
He joined the Army in 1994 at age 20 after serving two years in the Navy Reserve.
At the graveside ceremony, Bunda's family -- his mother, Lita Vigil; stepfather, Thomas Vigil; sister, Cecilia Kee; and the rest -- sat behind his closed coffin, which had been open for viewing during the week.
For his service in Iraq, Bunda was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service by Maj. Gen. James Collins of Fort Lewis.
Following a 21-gun salute, the American flag that draped Bunda's coffin was folded and handed to Michele. His mother, overwhelmed by grief, also received a flag.
"He was a man who served his country with distinction and honor," Fort Lewis Chaplain Jonathan Leach said. "His selfless service and his devotion to his country, his Army and the family that he loved will never be forgotten."
The body of Bunda, a 1992 graduate of Olympic High School, was cremated Friday afternoon and placed in his grave.
He became the first West Sound resident to die during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The day before Valentine's Day, Michele Bunda received a delivery of three roses and a card signed by her husband.
It said, "I love you, Chris."
It came nearly three weeks after Bremerton resident Christopher Bunda, a highly respected Army staff sergeant with the Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade, had died during a mission on the Tigris River. He was 29.
The flowers brought his grieving wife Michele to tears. From the battlefield in Iraq, he placed his Valentine's Day order a month early so the flowers would arrive on time.
Even in death, Bunda made his wife feel special.
"I just cried," said Michele, who has dutifully sat in a folding chair by her husband's open coffin this week during his viewing.
"He did it. He went missing on January 25th, and it still came."
