Family mourns slain soldier

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

At a quiet, somber rosary ceremony at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Carpinteria, family members and friends of 19-year-old Jamie “Jimmy” Rodriguez, Jr., gathered to mourn his death.
A flag-draped coffin stood at the front of the pews, pictures of Rodriguez flanking either side along with bouquets of flowers. Before filing slowly into the church to join the ceremony, Dario Blancarte, a childhood friend of Rodriguez, talked about growing up with him in Santa Barbara.

“He was a shy guy,” Blancarte said. “Nobody messed with him.”
Blancarte, a lance corporal in the Marines, was driving home alone from San Diego last Friday when he received the devastating phone call. Rodriguez, an Army specialist, was driving in a convoy in Saqlawiyah, Iraq, on July 26 when a roadside bomb exploded near his military vehicle, killing him and two other soldiers.
“You know the saying, the good die young? That was him,” Blancarte said. “He was a good guy.”
Growing up, Blancarte said, they played soccer and video games together before Rodriguez moved from Santa Barbara to Carpinteria. He attended Carpinteria High School, graduating in 2005 and joining the Army later that fall.
Sergeant Jahir Garcia, a cousin of Rodriguez also serving in the Marines, said Rodriguez had many passions as a kid, calling him a “jack-of-all-trades.”
“He enjoyed life to the fullest,” Garcia said.
Now a Marine recruiter in Chicago, Garcia, 29, said a phone call from his mom woke him at 2 a.m. on Friday, delivering the bad news. As soon as he got off the phone, he started making arrangements to fly out to California. Garcia served in Iraq in 2004 and said he lived through several IED, or Improvised Explosive Device, attacks himself.
Blancarte said Rodriguez served in the Army as a “Motor T” or motor transportation operator, driving fuel tank trucks, Hummers and troop transports. He joined the Army in November 2005, and arrived at Fort Stewart, Georgia, in July 2006 before shipping out for Iraq in January as part of the 1st Brigade “Raiders” of the 3rd Infantry Division.
Blancarte, also 19, said he will be leaving for a tour in Iraq in January, admitting that the death of his childhood friend shook him.
“I never really though about that, you know, death,” he said.
Services with full military honors and a 21-gun salute will be held today for Rodriguez at Santa Barbara Cemetery. A candlelight vigil held by his friends on Monday brought hundreds of people out to mourn, Garcia said.
“He was a real good kid,” Garcia said. “Everyone loved him.”