I read in last night’s Houston Chronicle that a Texas City soldier — 20-year old Spc. Michael J. Jaurigue — had been killed in action over the Memorial Day weekend:
The Jaurigues learned Saturday that their only son had been killed May 22 when an explosive device went off near his patrol. Michael Jaurigue and the three soldiers who died with him were in a Humvee when the explosion occurred, his father said.
“He was a soldier. He was dedicated,” said Jose Jaurigue, a retired Marine. “He had a job to do, and he did it.”
Michael, born in Hawaii, moved with his family to Texas City at the age of 2. Though he was just 15 when the tragedy of 9/11 occurred, the events so saddened him that he resolved to join the military after high school.
He graduated from Dickinson High School in 2004 and joined the U.S. Army the following year, going to Fort Benning, Ga., where he attended boot camp and jump school.
Then Michael relocated to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where he joined the 82nd Airborne Division.
It was a move that still makes his father burst with pride down at the American Legion Hall. “People would say, ‘How’s your son?’ and I would say, ‘He’s airborne,’” said Jose Jaurigue, who was part of the Marine Corps for 22 years.
My youngest brother, SFC Cooper, was the Station Commander of the Texas City Recruiting Station in 2004, so I called him this morning to ask if he knew Spc. Jaurigue.
My brother hadn’t yet heard the news that another one of “his soldiers” (many recruiters feel that the men and women that they put into the Army are “their soldiers”)Â had been killed in action. He said that he remembered Spc. Jaurigue very clearly — Jaurigue was a recruiter’s dream: exemplary grades in High School, a spotless personal record, a supportive (prior) military family, and a devote sense of patriotism and duty.
In seven years of service as a 79R (Recruiter), Spc. Jaurigue was only the second one of my brother’s recruits to be killed in combat (PFC Nathaniel “Nathan†Given, also of Dickinson, TX, was killed in combat last December).
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“Where do we find such men?” is a phrase I hear people frequently use when talking about the selfless and brave men that are willing to put their lives between the desolation of war and their loved ones back home. Watch this video interview with his mother and father. That his father was in the Marine Corps for 22 years goes a long way towards understanding where Michael learned his values.
I am in shock, first because it has taken me this long to learn this, and secondly because I knew this young man. I was his recrutier, he first joined the Marine Corps and then the day that he was suppose to go to boot camp something came up (personaly that stopped him from going). He was a great young man!!! And we tried very hard to get him in but after all failed he still wanted to serve his country and joined the army! I am responding to this because I am in Japan and would like his family’s address back home so that I may write them. Thank You
Left by Floyd Hutto on August 11th, 2008 at 12:58 am