United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

On Aug. 2, three more soldiers from the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, were killed by a bomb in Baghdad, two days after three other soldiers from the same brigade died in a similar attack, the News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) reported on Tues., Aug. 7.[1] -- All were fathers leaving seven children behind, and one had an additional stepson. -- Eleven other soldiers were wounded by the explosion. -- The Olympian (Olympia, WA) published a photograph of one of the men who died Thursday, Spc. Eric D. Salinas of Houston, Texas, crying at a a memorial service in Iraq last October for a fellow soldier who was killed.[2] -- One of the men killed, Spc. Cristian Rojas-Gallego of Loganville, Georgia, re-enlisted after completing four years of service (and three tours in Iraq) as a Marine because he "had been unable to make enough money to support his family through the odd jobs he worked after leaving the Marine Corps, his brother said," according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.[3] -- Yet the 24-year-old Rojas-Gallego held no fewer than ten military decorations: the Army Commendation Medal, Navy-Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, and Combat Infantryman Badge. -- (NOTE: This account was later disputed by Megan Rojas-Gallego, the soldier's widow, who called News Tribune reporter Mike Gilbert on Tuesday to say that Rojas-Gallego "joined the Army because I wanted to join. He told me, 'No, honey. You're too beautiful. Let me go.' He was the bread winner. He didn't want me to do it." She said she said they didn't learn she was pregnant until after they arrived at Fort Lewis, and said her husband was doing just fine income-wise in the work he'd found after the Marines.) -- AP reported that the deaths brought to 3,674 the number of U.S. military who have died in Iraq since March 2003.[4] -- The Seattle Post-Intelligencer was the only paper to mention that Salinas, Rojas-Gallego, and Staff Sgt. Fernando Santos of San Antonio, Texas, were still in Iraq when they were killed because of a three-month extension tacked onto what was originally a twelve-month tour of duty.[5] -- Mike Barber observed that "The soldiers' deaths bring to 79 the number of servicemen and servicewomen from Washington or its bases who have been killed in Iraq this year. It is the deadliest year ever for Washington troops." -- Barber added: "The president cautioned . . . that August could be the bloodiest month of the 'surge' of troops, predicting insurgents would raise the stakes before an anticipated report to Congress in September about the operation by Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq." -- KOMO 4 posted a photo of Susan Rothwell adding the names of the newly dead to the sign she keeps outside her restaurant of the latest Ft. Lewis soldiers killed in Iraq.[6] -- "I think about the person. Their family. Their connections," Rothwell said. -- "I wonder, were they here? Did we serve them their last breakfast before they left?" -- Details on the bombing that killed Santos, Salinas, and Rojas-Gallego have been few, but in a piece published before the official identifications were announced by the Dept. of Defense the San Antonio (Texas) Express-News reported that it occurred in "eastern Baghdad," like the earlier fatal incident on Jul. 31.[7] -- Michelle De La Rosa said their unit had been "conducting combat operations against militias in that part of the nation's capital," though this was not reported in other accounts. -- De La Rosa explained Santos's family situation: His wife, Adonia, was five years older than he, and they children aged 6 months, 15 months, and 7 years, as well as Adonia's 16-year-old son from a previous relationship. -- His uncle said that at Santos's request he will be buried "in San Fernando Cemetery No. 3 on Cupples Road, next to the grave of Albina Santos, the grandmother who raised him." -- "Albina Santos and her husband, who also is deceased, raised Fernando virtually from the time he was an infant, after his mother left. . . . Fernando attended John Jay High School in the Northside Independent School District but did not graduate, Adonia said. Instead, he earned his GED while working at Bill Miller Bar-B-Q to help support Adonia and her son, who was a baby back then. 'He was the best thing that ever happened to me,' she said. 'He was always, always wanting to make me happy.' When Fernando started hanging around with Adonia's brothers, he was about 13, she said. Several years later, they began dating. After a 10-month courtship, they married in 1996 at Albina's home. In 1997, Fernando enlisted in the Army. The couple had been at Fort Lewis since 2000, Adonia said. . . . Fernando was home for a two-week break in February when baby Victor was born. Fernando spent a week with the infant before returning to Iraq." -- Nydia Lopez of the San Antonio Express-News reported that Fernando Santos was an E-6 staff sergeant, in charge of his own platoon.[8] ...

Three more Fort Lewis soldiers were killed Thursday in a bombing on the streets of Baghdad, the Department of Defense said.

They were from the same Stryker infantry battalion -- the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment -- that lost three soldiers in a similar attack last Tuesday.

The three were killed when an insurgent bomb detonated near their vehicle, the Pentagon said in a news release Sunday.

U.S. military officials in Iraq said 11 other soldiers were wounded in the strike. Four suffered minor injuries and returned to duty. There was no information Monday about the status of the other seven.

The battalion is part of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, now in its 14th month in Iraq and scheduled to return home next month.

While most of the brigade has moved northeast of the capital to Baqouba for Operation Arrowhead Ripper, the 2-3 Infantry has remained behind in Baghdad serving as a reaction force for commanders in the capital.

Until last week’s attacks, the battalion had lost six soldiers during the current deployment.

Thursday’s deadly attack followed a similar bombing last Tuesday, when three of the battalion’s soldiers were killed and six wounded. The blast claimed Spc. Zachariah J. Gonzalez, 23, of Indiana, Pfc. Charles T. Heinlein, Jr., 23, of Hemlock, Mich., and Pfc. Alfred H. Jairala, 29, of Hialeah, Fla.

A memorial ceremony for all six soldiers has been scheduled for Aug. 15 at the Fort Lewis main post chapel.

Santos was a father of three and also helped his wife, Adonia, raise her son from a previous relationship. Their youngest was born in February, when the soldier was home on leave, family members told the San Antonio Express-News.

Santos joined the Army in 1997 and served at Fort Campbell, Ky., and in Korea before arriving at Fort Lewis in October 2000. He deployed to Iraq in 2003-04, also with the 2-3 Infantry.

His widow said he took his job as a squad leader seriously and worked hard to take care of his soldiers.

“He schooled them on finances and parenting and marriage and investment,” Adonia Santos told the Express-News. “He wanted them to be OK when they got out, like you would your own child. Everybody wanted to be him. He was really funny, quirky. He made everybody laugh. He was strong.

“He was the best thing that ever happened to me,” she said. “He was always, always wanting to make me happy.”

Fort Lewis officials said Salinas enlisted in 2004 and arrived at the post the following January after training at Fort Benning, Ga.

His aunt, Gracie DeLeon of Houston, told his hometown paper he leaves behind a 4-year-old son.

“He wanted to fight for our country,” she told the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen, Texas. “He wanted to see the world, see different people and different cultures. It was something he always wanted to do.”

“He was the clown of the family,” she told the Star. “He was always coming out with silly things to do to entertain us. He was a great person.”

Rojas-Gallego joined the Marine Corps at 19 and served three combat tours in Iraq before leaving the Corps in 2005, his brother, Eduardo, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

He returned to the service -- this time, the Army -- in July 2006 when he and his wife Megan learned they were expecting their third child. After leaving the Marines he hadn’t been able to make enough money to support his family, his brother said.

Fort Lewis officials said Rojas-Gallego reported to the post in September 2006 and was later sent to Iraq with replacements for the 3rd Brigade.

[PHOTO CAPTION: Spc. Eric Salinas gets emotional at a memorial service in Iraq last year for a fellow soldier who was killed. Salinas died last week in Baghdad.

Three Fort Lewis soldiers were killed Thursday by a bomb that detonated near their vehicle in Baghdad, according to the Department of Defense.

Staff Sgt. Fernando Santos, 29, of San Antonio, Texas; Spc. Cristian Rojas-Gallego, 24, of Loganville, Ga.; and Spc. Eric D. Salinas, 25, of Houston, Texas, were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis.

The announcement follows a report Friday of the deaths of Spc. Zachariah J. Gonzalez, 23; Pfc. Charles T. Heinlein Jr., 23; and Pfc. Alfred H. Jairala, 29, who died July 31, also from a roadside bomb. They were assigned to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) at Fort Lewis.

A former Georgia Marine who joined the U.S. Army to support his growing family has been killed in Iraq less than a year after re-enlisting.

Spc. Cristian Rojas-Gallego, 24, of Loganville was one of three soldiers who died Thursday in Baghdad after an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle, the Department of Defense confirmed Monday.

The other dead soldiers are Staff Sgt. Fernando Santos, 29, of San Antonio, Texas, and Spc. Eric. D. Salinas, 25, of Houston.

All three were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Wash.

Rojas-Gallego joined the Army on July 20, 2006, after learning his wife, Megan, was pregnant with their third child, said Eduardo Rojas, one of his three siblings.

The soldier had been unable to make enough money to support his family through the odd jobs he worked after leaving the Marine Corps, his brother said. Rojas-Gallego served four years as a Marine, including three tours in Iraq.

The Iraq war interrupted Rojas-Gallego's efforts to earn a high school diploma while a Marine, his brother said.

Rojas-Gallego's awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal, Navy-Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon and Combat Infantryman Badge.

As of Monday, Aug. 6, 2007, at least 3,674 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 3,010 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is 14 more than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Monday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 164 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, South Korea, one death each.

--Army Spc. Charles E. Leonard, Jr., 29, Monroe, La., died Sunday in Baghdad when his vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

-Marine Lance Cpl. Cristian Vasquez, 20, Coalinga, Calif., died Thursday while conducting combat operations in Anbar province; assigned to the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

--Air Force Tech. Sgt. Joey D. Link, 29, Portland, Tenn., died Sunday of natural causes at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany; assigned to the 39th Airlift Squadron, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.

--Army Spc. Braden J. Long, 19, Sherman, Texas, died Saturday in Baghdad after his Humvee came under grenade attack; assigned to the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

--Army Master Sgt. Julian Ingles Rios, 52, Anasco, Puerto Rico, died Thursday in Baghdad when his Humvee was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade; assigned to the 130th Engineer Battalion, Puerto Rico National Guard, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

--Three soldiers were killed Thursday when an explosive detonated near their vehicle in Baghdad. All were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash. Killed were Army Staff Sgt. Fernando Santos, 29, San Antonio; Army Spc. Cristian Rojas-Gallego, 24, Loganville, Ga.; and Army Spc. Eric D. Salinas, 25, Houston.

After leaving the Marine Corps following four years of service and three deployments to Iraq, Cristian Rojas-Gallego, 24, worked wherever he could to provide for his wife and two children.

When he learned a third child was on the way, Rojas-Gallego went back into the service of his country in July 2006, this time joining the Army and Fort Lewis' 3rd Stryker Brigade, his brother, Eduardo, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday.

Thursday, Spec. Rojas-Gallego of Loganville, Ga., was among three of the brigade's soldiers killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb, the Defense Department said.

Staff Sgt. Fernando Santos, 29, of San Antonio and Loganville, Ga.; and Spec. Eric Domingo Salinas, 25, of Houston died with him when a bomb hidden in the road blew up near their vehicle in Baghdad, Army officials said. Together they left behind eight children.

The soldiers' deaths bring to 79 the number of servicemen and servicewomen from Washington or its bases who have been killed in Iraq this year. It is the deadliest year ever for Washington troops. The three were among six 3rd Stryker Brigade soldiers killed in a three-day span.

The three killed Thursday served with the 3rd Stryker Brigade's Company A, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment. The nearly 4,000-member brigade went to Iraq for a year in June 2006. The brigade's tour of duty was extended to 15 months early this year under President Bush's increase of U.S. troops into Iraq to combat escalating sectarian violence.

The president cautioned at the time that August could be the bloodiest month of the "surge" of troops, predicting insurgents would raise the stakes before an anticipated report to Congress in September about the operation by Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Rojas-Gallego joined the Marines at 19. After leaving the service, he scrambled to support his family, working a number of odd jobs but decided to sign up for the Army a year ago after he and his wife learned they were expecting their third child.

Rojas-Gallego's combat service in two branches of the military is reflected in the awards he earned. They include not only an Army Commendation Medal and Combat Infantryman Badge but also a Navy-Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation.

Santos and Salinas also earned Army Commendation Medals and Combat Infantry Badges.

Santos, the oldest and highest-ranking enlisted man among the three, leaves behind a wife and four children. He was on his third deployment to Iraq.

Santos joined the Army in October 1997. He served at Fort Campbell, Ky., and Camp Coiner, Korea, before reporting to Fort Lewis on Oct. 18, 2000, to join the 3rd Stryker Brigade.

Looking forward to his unit's homecoming in two months, Santos wanted simply to return home and raise his children, his family told KENS/5 television in San Antonio.

"Two months that were coming up," his uncle, Daniel Santos, told reporters. "That was going to be his final tour, and he didn't make it."

Santos said his nephew was "ecstatic" about being a soldier when he joined. However, in the past few months, he said, his nephew wanted to leave the war and be with his family.

"It was taking a toll on him," Daniel said. "A lot of fallen comrades that were close to him."

Salinas joined the Army on Sept. 7, 2004, and reported to Fort Lewis' 3rd Stryker Brigade on Jan. 7, 2005. In October, while based in Mosul, Iraq, he was depicted in a poignant photo in the Olympian newspaper weeping for a fellow soldier who had died in Iraq.

In Texas, Salinas' aunt Gracie DeLeon told the Monitor newspaper in the Rio Grande Valley that her nephew was the clown of the family, a dancer, and sports lover, and basically "a great person."

She told the newspaper that her nephew was due to arrive home three days before his birthday in September.

"He wanted to fight for our country," DeLeon told the paper. "He wanted to see the world, see different people and different cultures. It was something he always wanted to do."

--P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com.

[PHOTO CAPTION: Susan Rothwell stands next to the sign outside her restaurant after adding the names of the latest Ft. Lewis soldiers killed in Iraq.]

FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- The Department of Defense on Sunday said that three more soldiers from Fort Lewis have been killed in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Fernando Santos, 29, Spc. Cristian Rojas-Gallego, 24, and Spc. Eric D. Salinas, 25, were killed August 2 when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in Baghdad.

All three soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, at Fort Lewis.

Across the street from the main gate at Fort Lewis is a sign outside Gallopping Gertie's restaurant listing the last names of the three soldiers.

Owner Susan Rothwell posts the names of all the fallen Fort Lewis soldiers and just finished posting the latest names Monday morning. "I'm running out of room. That's the really sad part," she said.

Rothwell says it's a good day when she doesn't have to come out and update the sign.

"I think about the person. Their family. Their connections," she says. "I wonder, were they here. Did we serve them their last breakfast before they left?"

On July 31, three other soldiers from the same unit were killed in Baghdad by an improvised explosive device that detonated near their vehicle on July 31.

The Pentagon said Spc. Zachariah J. Gonzalez, 23, Pfc. Charles T. Heinlein Jr., 23, and Pfc. Alfred H. Jairala, 29, died in that attack.

When Fernando Santos entered Adonia Santos' life, she knew him as the younger boy who lived across the street and liked to laze around with her brothers.

"He was just this tall, scrawny, nerdy little kid who came around to hang out," she recalled during a phone interview from Fort Lewis, Wash., on Saturday.

In November, they would have been married 11 years. Fernando, a 29-year-old staff sergeant, had been scheduled to return from his second deployment to Iraq in June, but his stay was extended until October, Adonia said. When he returned, the couple were supposed to start planning a ceremony to renew their vows.

But Fernando and two other soldiers were killed Thursday after a roadside bomb, called an improvised explosive device by the military, detonated near their patrol in eastern Baghdad. None of the dead has yet been officially identified. A news release issued by military authorities in Baghdad said 11 other soldiers were wounded. Four were treated for their injuries and released.

They were conducting combat operations against militias in that part of the nation's capital.

Fernando was the 29th San Antonian killed in Iraq since the invasion. Six U.S. troops have died in the first four days of this month; 80 were killed in July, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

Adonia, 34, said her husband was a strong man who tried to set a good example for others and tried to raise people's spirits, often through humor. He loved his children -- three the couple had together, ages 6 months, 15 months, and 7 year, and Adonia's 16-year-old son from a previous relationship -- and valued time with his family when he wasn't working, Adonia said.

"One of the last times that I talked to him, he was telling me that he was making plans that once he was back stateside, he was looking at changing his career path so he would be home more and wouldn't be in the field or deployed so much," said Terrie Bradlaw, Adonia's mother.

Fernando's body will be returned to San Antonio, possibly this week. He will be buried in San Fernando Cemetery No. 3 on Cupples Road, next to the grave of Albina Santos, the grandmother who raised him.

Daniel Santos, who is handling the funeral arrangements, said that was his nephew's request. Albina Santos and her husband, who also is deceased, raised Fernando virtually from the time he was an infant, after his mother left, said Gilbert Santos, Fernando's father and Albina's son.

Albina Santos was proud of her grandson's military career, Daniel Santos said. And Fernando was excited about his success. Daniel Santos recalled one phone call from a jubilant Fernando.

"He matched his dad's rank," Daniel Santos said. "He called that he was so happy that he was able to match his father's rank. That was one of his highlights."

Fernando attended John Jay High School in the Northside Independent School District but did not graduate, Adonia said. Instead, he earned his GED while working at Bill Miller Bar-B-Q to help support Adonia and her son, who was a baby back then.

"He was the best thing that ever happened to me," she said. "He was always, always wanting to make me happy."

When Fernando started hanging around with Adonia's brothers, he was about 13, she said. Several years later, they began dating. After a 10-month courtship, they married in 1996 at Albina's home.

In 1997, Fernando enlisted in the Army. The couple had been at Fort Lewis since 2000, Adonia said.

"He schooled them on finances and parenting and marriage and investment," she said. "He wanted them to be OK when they got out, like you would your own child. Everybody wanted to be him. He was really funny, quirky. He made everybody laugh. He was strong."

Fernando was home for a two-week break in February when baby Victor was born. Fernando spent a week with the infant before returning to Iraq.

On Thursday, Adonia was feeding the baby and preparing him for a nap when a chaplain came to her door. His words obliterated any plans for a ceremony to renew marriage vows.

There will still be a ceremony, this one a funeral farewell, and Adonia is sure many will attend.

"I just want the people to recognize him, that he went out there and fought for his country, and proudly," he said.

Staff Sgt. Fernando Santos was just two months shy of ending his tour in Iraq, but a roadside bomb kept him from coming home to San Antonio alive.

In his last months, Santos wanted nothing more than to come home and raise his children.

"He wanted to move closer to us, and his family. He's been gone for awhile," Santos' brother-in-law, Billy Yarbrough, said.

It's been years since Yarbrough last saw his brother-in-law, but they spoke frequently over the phone.

"He was supposed to come home, try to take a promotion and get a desk job, so he didn't have to go back out anymore," Yarbrough said.

Santos was raised by his grandparents in San Antonio. He joined the military soon after he graduated from John Jay High School.

"He was just so ecstatic with being in involved in the military," said his uncle, Daniel Santos.

Fernando Santos was an E-6 staff sergeant, in charge of his own platoon. He served three tours, including this one in Iraq.

"Two months that were coming up,” Daniel said. “That was going to be his final tour, and he didn't make it”.

Daniel is very proud of his nephew. But in the last few months, Daniel said his nephew had good reason to leave the war and come home to his family.

"It was taking a toll on him,” Daniel said. “A lot of fallen comrades that were close to him.”

Santos' body will be flown back to the United States in about a week. His family will grant his final wish: to be buried next to his grandparents in San Antonio.