R.I.P., soldier

Another Rio Grande Valley serviceman has been killed in Iraq while doing his duty and fulfilling his mission.

The latest son of the Valley to lose his life is Army Pfc. Alex Gonzalez of Mission. The 21-year-old Mission High School graduate, an Army explosives expert, was killed Tuesday morning when Iraqi insurgents fired on his patrol vehicle. He is the second soldier from Mission to die this year and the 24th from the Valley killed since the start of the Iraq war in 2003.

From all accounts, Gonzalez, a Mission High football and baseball player, was a fine young man with a good sense of humor who was well liked by his peers. He enlisted in the Army, following in the path of his father, who had been a paratrooper. He was planning to get out of the service at the end of his enlistment and become a Mission police officer.

His uncle, Armando Rodriguez, described Gonzalez as "a prankster and a jokester," adding that "he always cared about everybody. He never wanted to offend anybody."

Understandably, his family and friends are suffering extreme grief, and across the Valley, we all grieve with them - just as we have mourned the loss of each of the Valley servicemen who've died in Iraq or Afghanistan. God only knows that with 24 lives lost, the Valley has suffered more than its share of grief, and still the conflict drags on with seemingly no final resolution yet in sight.

That considered, the tortured statement made by Javier Rodriquez, another of Gonzalez's uncles, resonates a sentiment many in the Valley must share.

"This needs to stop. (Iraqis) don't want us there," Javier Rodriguez said Tuesday after learning of his nephew's death.

However, whether you oppose or support our continued involvement in the conflict in Iraq, nothing diminishes the fact that Pfc. Gonzalez made the ultimate sacrifice doing his duty on behalf of the rest of us. For that, he deserves not only our tears, but also our respect and our gratitude.

He will be missed by all who knew him - as well as by those of us who were never fortunate enough to meet him. By all accounts, he was a good soldier, a good son, a good nephew, a good friend and we have little doubt that he also would have been a good police officer.