
HONOLULU — The soldier from Central Oahu who was killed Saturday in Iraq emigrated from the Philippines in 1997 and wanted to serve her adopted country, a family member said Sunday.
Sgt. Myla L. Maravillosa, 24, of Wahiawa, died of injuries sustained in Al Hawijah, Iraq, when her Humvee was attacked by enemy forces using rocket-propelled grenades, the Defense Department said in a news release.
“She was doing a heroic job,” her mother Estelita Maravillosa told The Honolulu Advertiser.
Maravillosa joined the Army Reserve in 1999, after graduating from Leilehua High School and two years after moving to the United States. She was assigned to the Army Reserve’s 203rd Military Intelligence Battalion, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
She had attended Leeward Community College and had aspirations of working at a U.S. embassy. She...