Filam soldier buried with full US honors in Bohol

INABANGA, Philippines-Many of the residents of this tiny fishing and farming village in the central Philippines had never heard of Iraq until the body of US army Sergeant Myla Maravillosa was flown home last week. Now everyone is talking about the war and the local girl who wanted to be a nun but joined the US Army instead, only to be killed by Iraqi insurgents on Christmas Eve. She was buried Jan. 19 in the local Catholic cemetery with full military honors-another name on the growing US honor role of men and women killed in Iraq. The body of Maravillosa, who emigrated to join her mother in Hawaii in 1997 when she was 16, was flown here last week in a steel gray casket draped with the US flag. She is the second Filipino-American soldier to have been killed in Iraq. Last month.
Her wake in the modest family home accessible by a muddy unpaved path has drawn hundreds of townsfolk and relatives.
They tell nightly stories of the girl who wanted to be a nun but ended up fighting a war.
Brigadier General Gregory Schumacher, commander of the Army reserve intelligence readiness command, awarded Maravillosa the Bronza Star, the Purple Heart and a Meritorious Service Medal for her stint in Iraq, where she was assigned in the southern region of Kirkuk as an intelligence interrogator. A natural linguist, the barely five-foot tall Maravillosa had endeared herself to her colleagues with steely resolve and her compassion.
She was in a convoy on Christmas Eve when it ran into a hail of rocket-propelled grenades. At least seven soldiers died in the attack, according to her mother Estelita Maravillosa, citing a report by the US military. But only her daughter’s body was recognizable, a miracle the mother attributed to the Roman Catholic medallions and crosses she had worn during her tour of duty. The mother said her daughter was afraid of getting killed in Iraq but her deep sense of duty prevailed. “Myla died for a cause. They (American government) respect her and she is a real hero,” the tearful mother said. Sister Margaret Michael, vocation director for the Daughters of Saint Paul that provided spiritual guidance to Myla, said in a letter to the soldier’s family: “She said that as she carried her weapon that weekend, she could envision herself more with a Bible in hand, than a rifle.” Darlene Rodrigues, a Maravillosa cousin, said the clan was surprised when they learned of her service in Iraq. They knew she was afraid of dying there but she had no choice as an enlisted person.
“I think she died doing her duty. She is a person of integrity. But she was really afraid,” Rodrigues said. “Maybe Myla died because God did not want her to kill anyone.” Lieutenant-Colonel Jacquelin Lyons, a spokesman for the Joint US Military Advisory Group in Manila, said Maravillosa’s body would be paraded from the town church with a full US military honor guard.
“She’s a national hero. She gave her life for her (adopted)  country,” Lyons said.