Mike T. Sonoda Jr
Profile
Age: 34
From: Fallbrook, Calif.
Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment, California Army National Guard, Fullerton, Calif.
Incident: Army Spc. Mike T. Sonoda Jr. died Sept. 22 of injuries sustained Sept. 21 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his M113 Armored Personnel Carrier in Baghdad.
Died: September 22, 2005
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Solider remembered as ‘spirit of the platoon’
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Mike Sonoda Jr., a specialist with the California Army National Guard, was killed in Iraq last month when a homemade bomb blew up near his armored personnel carrier.
Sonoda, 34, died Sept. 22 of injuries suffered a day earlier in the Baghdad explosion. He was the only soldier killed.
Sonoda had been living in Fallbrook in San Diego County before he was deployed to Iraq in January with the guard’s 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment.
Sonoda often was the first to volunteer for patrols, said Maj. Daniel Markert, one of his commanders.
“He was the kind of guy the younger soldiers would look up to and the older sergeants could rely on,” Markert said. “He was a real spirit of the platoon.”
He relaxed by reading science fiction and history.
“He could read a 300-page book in a day,...