Juan Carlos Cabral-Banuelos

SGT Juan Carlos Cabral-Banuelos

Killed in Action January 31, 2004

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.

CPL Juan Cabral receives the Purple Heart Medal
for wounds received in action

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.
The boys are 7 years and 18 months old.

http://deseretnews.com

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Pallbearers carry Sgt. Juan Carlos Cabral's casket from Ogden's St. Joseph's Catholic Church.

Soldier recalled with love

By Larry Weist
Deseret Morning News

OGDEN — Utah's fifth serviceman killed in Iraq was remembered Wednesday for his love of family, friends, country and the U.S. Army.

Sgt. Juan Carlos Cabral, who died with two other soldiers on Jan. 31 when their vehicle struck an explosive device near the city of Kirkuk, was buried in Washington Heights Memorial Park, South Ogden, following a funeral Mass in St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Ogden.
The Rev. Hernando Diaz, pastor of St. Joseph's, asked the more than 100 people in the congregation to pray for Cabral, who attended St. Joseph's as a youngster. The Rev. Diaz said that while it is hard to see someone die, "one day we shall be with him again in the love of Christ, which destroys death."
Cabral leaves a widow, Anita, who was his childhood sweetheart, and two sons. He grew up in Ogden but graduated from an Emporia, Kan., high school while living there with his mother. He went immediately into the Army, where he was a mechanic with the 4th Infantry Division's 4th Forward Support Battalion.
The Rev. Diaz asked the congregation to pray on behalf of Cabral that God will have mercy on him and carry him home to heaven because he put his faith in God. "Death is the final stage of our existence (here), but it is not our final destination, it is a vehicle," he said.
Everyone dies in different ways and under different circumstances, he said. "We as believers, as Christians, as Catholics, believe in eternal life no matter at what age we die. Don't let your hearts be troubled. Our faith gives us meaning to existence and meaning to dying."
The Rev. Diaz reminded the congregation that many people die all over the world each day from war, violence and starvation, and in prayer he made supplication to God to accept them into his presence. "Now our brother Juan Carlos is in the hands of God. We come together today to say goodbye and to pray to the good Lord for his salvation.

"Let us give thanks to Juan Carlos for his dedication to work and to his love for his family and friends."
Several members of the congregation wore T-shirts with Cabral's picture and dates of birth and death on them as well as the phrase, "In Loving Memory of 'Carlitos.' "
At the burial, the Rev. Diaz blessed the gravesite and asked that Cabral's soul rest in peace until the Resurrection.
A honor guard with seven soldiers firing the traditional 21-gun salute and an Air Force sergeant playing "Taps" provided a military burial in the chilly but sunny weather.
During the ceremony, Cabral was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart for wounds, a certificate of citizenship, and the Bronze Star for meritorious service in Iraq, "in keeping with the highest traditions of the 4th Infantry Division and the United States Army."
Maj. Gen. Kevin Campbell, chief of staff, U.S. Strategic Forces Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., presented the awards to Cabral's widow along with. He also presented folded American flags to her and the soldier's parents.
Campbell flew to Utah to represent the secretary of the Army.
After the burial, Veronica Ortiz, sister of Cabral's widow, spoke briefly about Cabral, saying he loved his family dearly and loved serving in the Army. The military was a big part of his life and he saw it as a stepping stone to someday opening his own auto repair shop, she said.
Cabral, who was born in Mexico in 1978, came to Utah when he was 1 year old and worked hard to obtain his citizenship, she said. "Being a citizen was very important to him."

Anita Cabral, wife of Sgt. Juan Carlos Cabral, wipes the tears of one of their sons, Fabian, 7,
during Cabral's interment in south Ogden. Cabral's mother, Angela Cabral, right, also comforts Fabian.
Laura Seitz, Deseret Morning News

E-mail: lweist@desnews.com
http://deseretnews.com/dn/cit

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