Air Force Reservists honor fallen soldier

  • Published
  • By Capt. Cathleen Snow
  • 920th Rescue Wing
PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  A small beachside community wept and waved flags and a ribbon of hundreds of uniformed Airmen from here stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them along a two-mile stretch of road leading to a funeral home nearby Oct. 8. 

They came to welcome home a 24-year-old fallen soldier, Army Sgt. Roberto Sanchez as a funeral procession carried his flag-draped casket from the local airport. 

Sergeant Sanchez was a 2004 graduate of a local high school and an Army Ranger. He was killed Oct. 1 in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, when his unit was attacked with a roadside bomb. 

"He was not only a member of our community and a fellow servicemember; he was an Army Ranger with five tours of duty in the zone. He was a true warrior that voluntarily accepted a huge amount of risk facing our enemy," said Chief Master Sgt. Doug Kestranek, the chief enlisted pararescueman with the 920th Rescue Wing here. 

Like Sergeant Sanchez, the Air Force Reserve pararescuemen here are special operators whose mission is to leave no servicemember behind during battle or peacetime. Their job is to go behind enemy lines and bring back the injured or to recover the fallen. 

Sergeant Sanchez went fighting the enemy and his name will be placed on "The Wall," said the Chief. The Wall is located in Kandahar, Afghanistan's special tactics center and is hall of heroes for fallen Army special operators. 

"We will all carry his warrior spirit with us as we continue to defend our great nation," he said.

He and the pararescuemen from here will be heading out for an Afghanistan deployment themselves in the upcoming months, one of many they have already been on. 

The sergeant's body was returned to his beachside hometown which borders Patrick Air Force Base, just before noon October 8. Funeral services and his burial followed the next day. 

Patriot Guard Riders lined up at the airport nearly three hours ahead of time to assist in the escort to the funeral home. 

"I'm not here as a Rolling Thunder or as a Patriot Guard," said Bob Bailey, who rode his motorcycle in the escort. "I'm here as an American paying respects to someone who signed a blank check for America. He was willing to put his life on the line for us." 

The military members stood shoulder to shoulder, police officers and firefighters stood nearby, all saluting, and civilians holding American flags waited solemnly to pay their respects as the police-escorted motorcade went by.