Alamo soldier laid to rest

MISSION — Gray clouds enveloped the sky throughout much of Monday afternoon.

But as the motorcade carried a fallen Alamo soldier to his final resting place, the clouds broke apart and the sun shined through.

Family and friends of U.S. Army Sgt. Fernando “Ferna” De La Rosa paid their final respects Monday after he was killed by a roadside bomb last month.

Local authorities escorted Sgt. De La Rosa’s body to Resurrection Catholic Church in Alamo, where scores of mourners came to honor who is believed to be the city’s first son lost at battle since World War II.

“He was a very tough little boy,” one of De La Rosa’s cousins said during the funeral.

De La Rosa is survived by his wife, Karen, and two sons, Fernando Jr. and Juan Carlos.

A roadside bomb exploded as De La Rosa’s unit was traveling Oct. 27 in the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan. Seven other soldiers died from the explosion.

De La Rosa previously spent two tours in Iraq before he went to Afghanistan. The Army posthumously awarded him the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Family members said De La Rosa always was proud of serving in the Army, after he enlisted in 2003.
“He really showed that he was proud to be serving his country,” his uncle, David Forquer, said Monday afternoon at the Rio Grande Valley State Veterans Cemetery.

But De La Rosa’s latest tour seemed more troubling than his times in Iraq.
“He was sad,” his mother, Rosa De La Rosa, said after learning of her son’s death. “I think already he kind of like knew, because in the other times he was out there — he had been in Iraq for the last two tours — he would call and he was OK. But this time that he was in Afghanistan, he sounded a little bit different — he sounded a little more sadder.”

De La Rosa is the 29th service member to be killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A total of 5,272 military personnel have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since October 2001, according to the latest Pentagon statistics released Monday.

Since learning of De La Rosa’s death last month, fellow classmates of the PSJA Memorial High School graduate have shared their mourning on a Myspace tribute page, as well.

“You were an awesome guy, and I will always remember you with a smile on your face and something to say that would always make me laugh,” fellow 2003 graduate Alvaro Moreno Jr. wrote.

In the weeks that would lead up to his death, De La Rosa described his latest tour on his Facebook page, calling it a “crazy couple of months” and noting that access to phones and Internet was limited.

“Some bad things but we’re all helping each other through them,” he wrote in a post on Oct. 4. “Thanks for all the prayers. We all love you and hope to see you soon.”
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Jared Taylor covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.