Friday, May 23, 2008

Profiling California's War Dead

Profiling California's War Dead

A Times analysis provides a portrait of the state's military personnel who died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Some were immigrants, most were young, but many were also parents.

By Hector Becerra
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

May 23, 2008

Nearly 500 Californians have lost their lives in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least 58 were immigrants; more than 160 were parents and left behind more than 300 children. One descended from two presidents; another was a Guatemalan street orphan taken in by a U.S. family as a teenager. One high school lost six of its graduates.

The findings come from a detailed analysis by The Times. A database of California's war dead will be available Sunday at latimes.com.

At age 7, Victor H. Toledo-Pulido was smuggled from Mexico through rugged mountains into California. He and another soldier were killed in May 2007 when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle southeast of Baghdad.

"They judge us, and they say we just come to take their jobs and positions, but we also make sacrifices. Victor worked since he was little, in the fields and in restaurants," his mother, Maria Gaspar, said after the 22-year-old was killed. "He was Mexican, but he thought like an American. And he gave his life for this country."

FIND THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE - http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wardead23-2008may23,0,5888990.story

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