Raul Moncada
Profile
Age: 29
From: Madera, Calif.
Assigned to the 563rd Military Police Company, 91st Military Police Battalion, 10th Sustainment Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.
Incident: Army Sgt. Raul Moncada died April 13 near Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
Died: April 13, 2009
Served in Marines before transitioning to Army
The Associated Press
Raul Moncada enrolled in the Marines at age 17 — less than a week after graduating from high school. He was honored at one point as the youngest active-duty Marine in the country, his family has said.
“He was very outgoing. He would do anything he could for anybody,” said his sister, Miriam. “He was a great person all around. Everybody knew him. Everybody loved him.”
Moncada, 29, of Madera, Calif., was killed by a roadside bomb April 13 when his convoy came under attack as it was returning to a base in Baghdad. He was on his second tour.
“He was such a one-of-a-kind person,” said Cecilia Herrera, a longtime neighbor. “He was a polite person, a humble person.”
As the third-oldest in a family of eight children, he served in the Marines for six years before taking a one-year break. He...