Jose A. Rivera-Serrano
Army Spc. Jose A.
Rivera-Serrano, 26 of Mayaguez, PR Unit: B Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cav.
Reg., 4th Infantry Div. U.S. Army on Dec. 27, 2004 Died when a roadside bomb
exploded as his vehicle passed.
Rest In Peace
Puerto Rican soldier killed in Iraq
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A Puerto Rican soldier was killed in Iraq when a
roadside bomb exploded as his vehicle passed, the Army said Tuesday.
Spc. Jose A. Rivera Serrano, 26, died in the attack in Baghdad on Monday, Army
spokesman Jose Pagan said.
Rivera became the 23rd person from the Caribbean territory to be killed in the
U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rivera was assigned to B Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Division, based
out of Fort Hood, Texas, Pagan said.
His parents live in the west-coast city of Mayaguez and they said he will be
buried in Puerto Rico.
“He called me a few days ago and he told me that he loved me very much and he
would be here soon,” his mother, Myrna Serrano, said.
Rivera enlisted in the military because of money problems after studying at a
vocational school in Mayaguez, Serrano said.
He is also survived by four siblings, his wife and four children from two
separate marriages who live in the United States, Pagan said. Funeral
arrangements were not immediately available.
At least 1,325 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the
Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Puerto Rico’s 4 million people cannot vote for U.S. president and have no vote
in the U.S. Congress, though they are American citizens and have served in the
U.S. military for generations.
Thursday, January 06 2005 @ 07:53 AM EST
Contributed by: tomw KWTX.com -- Services were held Wednesday in Puerto Rico for
Spc. Jose Rivera-Serrano, 26, who died two days after Christmas in a roadside
bombing in Baghdad.
Rivera-Serrano was assigned to the 2d Battalion of Fort Hood’s 5th Cavalry
Regiment.
An honor guard of soldiers from Fort Hood and Rivera-Serrano’s widow, Barbara
Sanfiorenzo, arrived Tuesday in Puerto Rico with the soldier's body.
Rivera was buried in the Memorial Cemetery of Mayaguez, the west-coast Puerto
Rican town where he was born an where his parents still live.
Mayaguez Mayor Jose Guillermo Rodriguez declared three days of mourning, in
honor of the first soldier from Mayaguez killed in the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
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