Army, Specialist 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: May 2, 2007 Baghdad (southern part), Iraq
Single Gender: Male
Hometown: Long Beach High School: Wilson High (Long Beach)
Foreign Country of Birth: Honduras
A week after her son was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, Lesby De Paz received his Mother's Day card in the mail.
"I want to tell you how much I appreciate everything you've given me," Army Spc. Astor Anibal Sunsin-Pineda, 20, had written in Spanish two days before his death.
"I send you this card -- simple, but with lots of love. I would like to be with you on this special day. God bless you."
Now, his mother says, he is with her forever.
"He was a good son," she said recently as family members and friends gathered to pay their respects at the flag-adorned Long Beach house she shares with her husband and three other sons.
"He was a happy guy, and that's how I want to remember him," she said. "He always tried to make people laugh, always tried to help them. I am very proud."
Sunsin-Pineda was trying to help someone May 2 when he volunteered to take another man's post on what should have been his day off. The truck he was driving struck a roadside bomb, killing him and another soldier. Also killed was 1st Lt. Ryan P. Jones.
Read the entire LA Times article about Army Specialist Astor A. Sunsin-Pineda here and find more in LA Indymedia. Visit Specialist Astor A. Sunsin-Pineda's Guest Book.A combat engineer, Sunsin-Pineda was assigned to the 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at Ft. Riley, Kan.
"I still think it's a dream," said Julio De Paz, the stepfather who raised Astor for most of his life. "I wake up in the morning and expect to see my son next to me. He just wanted to serve his country."
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1st Lt. Ryan P. Jones -- Rest In Peace
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