TALE OF TWO SOLIDERS FROM THE 1ST CAVALRY
Two More Deaths by the Shiite Radicals

Angel Munoz, Arsiaga's older sister who has served in the Army, said Arsiaga was passionate about helping the Iraqi people.

Army Specialists Die in Iraq Fighting

By BETSY BLANEY
The Associated Press
April 8, 2004

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - It wasn't long ago that Army specialists Israel Garza and Robert Arsiaga met at Fort Hood, but the two became fast friends. The 25-year-old married men even looked alike, at times switching clothes to play pranks.

Together to the last, they also died fighting side-by-side in Iraq.

Garza, from Lubbock, and Arsiaga, from Greenwood, grew up miles apart in West Texas, but never met until joining the Army. They quickly grew close, sharing family cookouts and other activities together.

On Sunday, the friends were killed as their convoy fought Shiite militiamen in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City. Five other soldiers from the 1st Cavalry at Fort Hood also died in the attack.

"He wasn't alone. He was with his best friend,'' said Tracie Arsiaga, Arsiaga's wife of five months. "He didn't know him a long time, but they were close. He was so lucky that he had a friend like him.''

Garza's mother, Dinah Rodriguez, said her son spoke fondly of Robert Arsiaga.

"He wanted me to meet him,'' Rodriguez said. "He said, 'They say we look so much alike.'''

The men had been in Iraq less than a month, having left Fort Hood on March 11. The families learned of the deaths Monday.

First lady Laura Bush, who was in Midland on Tuesday, stopped in to pay her respect's to Arsiaga's family in nearby Greenwood.

Arsiaga graduated from Greenwood High School in 1998. From there he went to Phoenix, Ariz., to study drafting, with plans to design a new home for his mother. He joined the Army in 1999 and served in Korea. He re-enlisted in 2001 with a military career in mind.

Then he met his future wife and decided he wanted a family life away from the military. He had planned to leave the Army in August, but when he was sent to Iraq that date was moved to 2005, Tracie Arsiaga said.

"I'm not angry,'' she said. "I'm just hurt. I believe I should have had more time with him. He was taken too soon. He's our hero and we love him very, very much.''

Angel Munoz, Arsiaga's older sister who has served in the Army, said Arsiaga was passionate about helping the Iraqi people.

"The soldier in me says, 'That that was his job,''' Munoz said. "And he did his job well. The sister in me is angry at losing him. I don't understand why he had to die.''

Garza went to school in the Frenship district near Lubbock. He obtained his GED after leaving school and married Guadalupe Silva in 2001. They had two sons, Israel Jr., 2, and Michael, 4 months. Daughter Brianna, 9, and son Steven, 8, were from previous relationships, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said Steven seemed scared and confused.

"Yesterday he came to my house and he was trying to kind of figure out what was going on,'' she said. ``But he was holding onto his dad's picture in his hand.''

Rodriguez said she tried to dissuade Garza from joining the military in September 2001, fearing he'd come into harm's way. But she said she told Garza a week before he went to Iraq that she finally had accepted his decision.

"I just didn't want him to get in,'' she said. "But I said 'OK, if that's what you want to do.' I'm very proud of him, and I'm glad that I got to tell him how proud I was of him.''