RIP Alex KIA in Iraq - His death brings action

August 25, 2004

Lance Corporal Arredondo served as Fire Team Leader during the Battalion's attack into the old cith of Najaf. As the Platoon attacked to clear a four-story hotel, it was heavily engaged by enemy machine gun and sniper fire from three different directions. Lance Corporal Arredondo returned fire exposing himself to great risk to ensure the members of his team were safe. After fearlessly exchanging fire with the enemy snipers for more than three hours, Lance Corporal Arredondo fell mortally wounded as he moved through the rooms to inspect the Marines' defensive position.

4 years ago my friends Carlos and Melida Arredondo received the news that their son, Alex who was 20 yrs old, had died while serving his second tour in Iraq. It was Carlos birthday, it is his birthday today.

Happy Birthday my friend. Life is a precious gift with moments that should be enjoyed. I’m sorry the joy of your birth will always remind me of the death of your child. A young man I never met but who has changed my life in so very many ways.

• 
  
• 
  

A death of a child can make parents do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. Alex’s death caused me deep pain for all who were being killed in my name. If this action has destroyed me this way - its hard to imagine how much we are going to have to do to overcome to begin the healing, to live together in peace - if we can't imagine peace and hold it inside or ourselves, we will never have peace.

His death, to me, was the straw that broke the camels back. It’s when my thoughts turned to action. I found, the way you use your time is important. We all have the same 24 hours in the day. Our greatest asset is time. We all have our job’s to do to become better humans for our survival of our children. There are so many things that need to be accomplished for the good of the people. The to do list is endless of things that need to be accomplished from making sure every vote is counted, getting people to the polls to taking care of our Vet’s when they come home and their families when of their family members died for this country. My roll in making it better for you and me is to talk about Alex and what a brave, funny, intelligent kid he was. He died a man but he was a kid to me. I talk about Alex to make people think - to educate them into paying attention what goes on other than their own lives. As I talk about Alex and hand them a copy of the first letter he sent home I ask them to please vote. I talk about Alex to most who cross my path. This country belongs to we the people and if we don’t vote we are letting others make decisions for us. Decisions that kill our children like Alex.

With Alex’s death came action for a better tomorrow.....Alex lives on through me, through his family and people who love him ....daily. He is with me often, smiling that he is being remembered. He wanted to make it better for you and me. He was a wonderful person that should have had more moments to share his beautiful smile with us.


Alex joined when he was 17 because he wanted to go to school and he knew his parents couldn’t afford to send him. Alex parents have set up scholarship fund to help other kids who have the same story as Alex. Doing this helps keeps other kids alive by giving them choices for their future.

The Alexander Arredondo Memorial Scholarship Fund
Blue Hills Regional Technical School
Joseph A. Ciccolo, Superintendent-Director

Please send donations to:
Blue Hills Regional Technical School
800 Randolph Street
Canton, MA 02021
Attn: Arredondo Scholarship Fund
Telephone (781) 828-5800
Email: bluehills@bluehills.org

I love you Alex, may your death bring us peace....

It begins with all of us doing our jobs to bring peace inside first before we can have it amongst us...

With tears once more...remembering Dondo
His first letter home

Mom & Dad,

Today is Sunday, January 19, 2003. I've been out at sea for three days now and I'm starting to feel better. The first two days I was completely sick from seasickness and some virus. So far everyday I come outside the skin of the ship and write letters, whale watch, (which isn't that great cause I haven't seen any but there are plenty of dolphins that swim along side the ship), watch the horizon and sunset, etc. This seams so unreal to me. I've never seen water this BLUE before, I've never looked 360 degrees around me and seen nothing but water, clouds, the sun and a Fleet of Battleships surrounding me. Tomorrow is one of my many , many training days on ship to prepare me for my mission. I will also be training a short time in Kuwait. This is hard for me to comprehend. It seems like my whole life changed in an instant. Yesterday I was in a classroom learning about trigonometry and history. I graduated, went to boot camp, went to school, graduated as a GRUNT. I was sent across the country to train. Now I'm being sent across the world to fight. Today I am in a classroom learning about Tactical Urban Combat and Nuclear, Biological and chemical warfare. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on my way to experience 1st hand what I am learning about. I am not afraid of dying. I am more afraid of what will happen to all the ones that I love if something happens to me. Soon enough I will be in the desert, outside in the city of Bagdad, in full combat gear, ready to carry out my mission. Wondering how this all happened so fast, Wishing I was back home going to school, dating Shelia, taking care of my family. Although I think this way now I am almost certain that if I didn't walk this path I would be wondering to myself "why didn't I make the other decision. Why didn't I walk the path of a proud warrior, a marine." Just because I wonder "what if" doesn't mean I'm not proud, it doesn't mean I feel like I made the wrong decision. It doesn't mean I have any regrets. I'm still proud to be fighting for mycountry. I feel like, If I'm not helping one way I should still do all that I can to help (OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM). I'm on a time back now. I need to send this letter in the next hour for it to get to you by Tuesday or Wednesday. I love you both very much and I wish I could keep writing but I got to go. LOVE YOU. PFC ARREDONDO/ UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

A note to Brian his brother:

WHATS UP BRIAN, I feel so lucky to be blessed with the chance to defend my country 6 months after I joined the military. Some Marines have been in for over 20 years and still haven't seen combat. I'm also lucky to have such a wonderful family. I know how much you love me and support me and that keeps me going along with a few other things. Is Jeanette babysitting for Mom? LOVE YOU BROTHER Your Big Brother - Private First Class Arredondo USMC

The last photo of Alex. His parents found his camera with this picture in it....

Imagine Peace inside for Alex....

Alex did his job with the time give him.

Are you doing your job in the 24 hours given to you? Report the news, voting, watch the polls, counting the votes, run for office, taking care of the next person, teaching the children that we are all the same - humans, helping a kid go to school in Alex's name on this day of his death ... are you doing your job? There is much to do, we all have a job to achieve what is needed for our survival as a society in this 24 hours given to us...to achieve peace and the ultimate gift of love for all. No one person can do it alone but together... Oh my God... do you know what we have? The power is in doing your job ... today, each one of us. And when we do our jobs we have change...

Without action we cannot keep Alex and his friends, our children alive...
and with this I am Keeping Alex alive....

With much love to my friend Carlos
Happy Birthday!

I used to think we were all the same. I really did, naively. What this war and the past 8 years have taught me is how different we really are...on so many different levels. Still can't believe people agree with what's going on and will vote for the same. How people really do see race and color (mostly the older ones) I really use to think we all wanted best for all of us. This isn't true...when I learn this my heart really was broke, still is.

Another thing I've learned about the past 8 years and the differences between us and how to accept for my own sanity the choices of others. Life is a very precious gift that is to be lived in the moment. within those moments we all make our own choices. choices are all different and I accept the ones others have made. Since I have no control over other people's choices and only my own, my hopes are that my actions and words will make another person think about their choices. which is why i talk about Alex so much to others and try to get people to vote....and make them think what a precious gift life is and to enjoy their moments. there are bad things happening to all of us all around. how we choose to look at it in each moment will decide what kind of life each of us have.... use these bad things to make us stronger so the bad moments don't repeat themselves and we learn the lessons being taught to us....that life is a precious gift from God with moments that should be enjoyed....and loved.

And the wars go on … by Mélida Arredondo

First of all, I’m tired of labels, labels, labels: Gold star, blue star, military family. We’re a Hispanic, Latino, white, immigrant family who had one child killed in Iraq, have another son considering the military and a nephew currently fighting in Afghanistan. Who cares what the terms or definitions are? Any way a person looks at it, the military will forever be a part of my life. Life will never been the same. Peace is not just a quiet moment to me. Peace has so much meaning and has become so elusive. War and deployments are something that I hate. Those words mean less sleep to me, a deep hole in my heart caused by losing Alex and the reality that others in my family now share the same fears I’ve experienced.

My nephew Randel is 23 years old and will be 24 in September. He’s a month younger than Alex who was killed in 2004. He never met his cousin but still knows all about him. He had just entered the service around the same time that his cousin was killed. He would tell me that he would be ok. Alex had said the same thing: “don’t worry, nothing will happen.”

Randel was first deployed to Korea in 2005. This is where he met his beautiful wife Mae. They married in Korea and soon after had a son born premature at five months and less than two pounds. He’s a beautiful boy named Robert.

I had the opportunity to visit South Florida this past weekend where my family resides. I spent lots of quality time with Robert and his baby sister Katia. She was born ten days after her daddy was deployed to Afghanistan and was two months premature. However, she weighed in at over five pounds.

Dad has only seen pictures and a web broadcast of his baby girl. Mae told me she had to stop watching her husband because he was crying and that made her very sad. Mae knows about how my husband Carlos and I have grieved greatly since Alex was killed in 2004. She worries that something should happen to Randel. Mae is just recuperating from childbirth so I encourage her to relax and remember all the blessings she has. She is still bleeding despite giving birth almost two weeks ago and visiting the doctor regularly. She’s now on iron pills (that are the hugest I’ve ever seen) due to the blood loss.

Now while Randel is deployed in Afghanistan, Mae and her two children have moved in with my brother, his wife and my nephew. They live in a small three bedroom with two baths. There are dishes in the sink, laundry in the hamper and baby stuff everywhere (i.e. cribs, high chairs, formula bottles, breast pads).

My brother is considered disabled due to Parkinson’s disease. His wife works full time and very long hours at a pre-school. She’s tired and wishes she could be home to help Mae out during these early days after Katia’s birth. My nephew is in the police academy and is gone pretty much Monday – Friday. On weekends and during off time, he is working out or asleep. He loves to play with the babies and is a great uncle but doesn’t have much time to help with baby-duty.

So many changes have happened to this small part of my family in the past month. I ask Mae about the medical insurance for the baby. The baby is not on

military tri-care yet. She has to figure out how to get little Katia on the plan as a dependent. This is a challenge for Mae whose first language is not English but Togoli due to being born in the Philippines. She’s learning Spanish, which my family speaks, and English simultaneously. She’s doing a great job. However, she still has many challenges to face while her US-born husband is away on deployment in Afghanistan. It was somewhat easier for her to learn at Fort Hood, Texas where Robert, Randel and she lived until recently. Also, there was a support group for military wives and lots of places close by to ask questions. She stays in touch with the support group via email and calls Fort Hood regularly with questions.

There are two cars to share among the four adults. My nephew takes his car to get to and from the police academy. The other three adults depend on each other to share cars and get chauffeured back and forth to work, doctor’s appointments or the market for groceries. Florida these days are in the 90s and humid. The central air conditioning has already broken down once this summer. There’s a lot of dependence on the ceiling fans. Mae walks the babies on occasion in the double stroller around the neighborhood. The summer heat and sun require for her to be cautious that she and the kids don’t overdo it.

I feel so much over having experienced this time with my niece, grandniece and grandnephew this weekend. I feel apprehensive at all they are facing. I worry over Randel in a war zone where four of his company were killed a few days past. I feel concern over his beautiful family and all they are surviving. I pray and pray for God to take care of them all.

May peace be inside all of us..

Carlos protesting Bush in Maine

Anti-war protesters target Bush in Maine

By David Sharp / Associated Press

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — The scene played out Saturday for what could be the last time: a sitting president visited Walker's Point, tourists held out hope of getting a glimpse of the president, and a group of noisy protesters paraded through the heart of town.

President Bush kept a low profile as 50 to 60 anti-war demonstrators marched to a police checkpoint less than a half-mile from his parents' seaside home. The group chanted "Hands off Iran!" and "Jail to the Chief!" as tourists in this seaside community paused to gawk.

Within sight of Walker's Point, peace activist Laurie Dobson called for a moment of silence "for all the people this man has killed in his two terms in office." Then Carlos Arredondo spoke of the loss of his son, Marine Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, who was killed in Iraq on Aug. 25, 2004.

Then the group turned away.

For his part, Bush was making preparations for a wedding. A white tent was set up on the Walker's Point property for the reception for two White House staffers, one of them a distant Bush cousin. Offshore, a Coast Guard cutter and several smaller patrol boats stood watch.

The number of demonstrators who set out on the 2-mile march under overcast skies was far fewer than the 1,700 who gathered last summer when Bush met with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

The noisy march was organized by the Kennebunks Peace Department and coincided with a series of "Hands Off Iran" demonstrations over the weekend.

Heading up the parade was a "Hands Off Iran" banner and a giant dove made from white bed sheets that was held aloft by demonstrators. Arredondo drove a pickup truck with a coffin in the back. Behind the truck, in a trailer, were empty boots, crutches and a walker in a nod to wounded veterans.

Some motorists honked their horns in support, but others honked their horns in frustration as the group made its way down Ocean Avenue past stores and inns.

Mike McKinley, a Texan who was in town for the wedding, said the family should be able to enjoy the day without the interference of protesters. "They should be able to enjoy their privacy and enjoy the celebration," he said as the protesters marched nearby.

Others, like Harold Beelte and Britta Hildebrand, visiting from Germany, enjoyed the opportunity to see U.S.-style democracy in action.

"You can call it a bonus," said Beelte as the two stopped their bikes to snap a photo of the demonstrators making their way down Ocean Avenue.

While in Kennebunkport, Bush usually goes fishing with his father but the weather wasn't cooperating over the weekend. He did get in at least one mountain bike ride, though.

There's talk that this could be Bush's last visit before he leaves office in January. But a White House spokeswoman said she wasn't certain.

Some Kennebunkport residents will he happy to see the circus-style atmosphere surrounding presidential visits come to an end. But most people don't mind. The former president, George H.W. Bush, and his wife Barbara, are well liked and freely go about their business.

Their three-story, stone-and-shingle home overlooking the ocean at Walker's Point has been in the family since the turn of the century.

Dawn Patten, who runs Patten's Berry Farm, behind the Cape Arundel Golf Club, said she's happy to see the younger Bush visiting his parents.

She didn't have kind words for the protesters, though.

"It's outrageous. He comes to town for two or three days and people harass him while he's here. I don't think it's right," Patten said.

Robert Fischer, owner of Mabel's Lobster Claw Restaurant, which was along the parade route, said he supports both the president and people's right to gather.

"I'm glad that they can protest. I don't expect everyone to agree on every issue. Luckily, in this country, everyone has the right to protest," said Fischer, who serves up an occasional coffee-flavored ice cream cone to the former President Bush.

PHOTOS