Marines, Staff Sergeant Based: Camp Pendleton
Combat Service Support Battalion 1, Combat Service Support Group 11, 1st Force Service Support Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: April 15, 2004
Ramadi (northeast of), Iraq Married, 4 children
Gender: Male
Hometown: Woodland
High School: Cache Creek High School (Yolo)
Foreign Country of Birth: Colombia
Burial: Winters Cemetery, Winters, Calif.
Jimmy Arroyave was born in Colombia but grew up in Woodland, outside Sacramento. A Marine since 1993, he had hoped to retire in 10 years and then work for the park service.
"Jimmy loved the national parks," said Rachelle, 27, a psychology student. "He had a national parks 'passport' that he kept at home in the safe so he wouldn't lose it."
On their honeymoon, she said, the couple went to Washington, D.C., where Jimmy got his passport stamped at 13 parks and monuments.
The Arroyaves were planning to tour Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in May. By then, Jimmy was supposed to have become a Marine recruiter stateside. He was ordered, instead, to Iraq, where he was to help repair water systems.
Two Jimmy Arroyave memorial funds have been established. One benefits the National Parks Fund through the Marin Community Foundation, 5 Hamilton Landing, Novato 94949. The other aids his family through the River City Bank, 199 Main St., Woodland 95695.
For Rachelle Arroyave, the kindness of strangers is a comfort.
"It's nice to know that so many people care," she said.
Read the entire LA Times article about
Marine Sergeant Jimmy J. Arroyave here.
Find more at Corps Stories,
and Fallen Heroes.
Visit Staff Sergeant Arroyave's Guest Book
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