Two men killed in Iraq are honored
Events in Boston and Sturbridge
 The family of the late Corporal Edgardo Zayas stood at the podium during the dedication of the Puerto Rican Veterans Associations' Boston Facility, located at 719 Tremont Street, in his honor Saturday afternoon. From left, his mother Gloria Zayas, his wife, Suheil Zayas and son Alex Zayas, 7, were presented with plaques in honor of him. (Globe Staff Photo / Justine Hunt) |
They were young fighting men from Massachusetts who had left their wives and children this year to fight in Iraq. And they were killed on patrol: Edgardo Zayas in August and Joshua L. Booth in October.
Yesterday, in separate events roughly 60 miles apart, both men were remembered as heroes by their communities.
In Sturbridge, thousands showed up at the local high school and waved American flags to honor the first resident of that city killed in combat since World War II. And in Boston, Suheil Zayas cut a red, white, and blue ribbon hanging across the Tremont Street entrance to the Corporal Edgardo Zayas Bi-lingual Veteran's Outreach Center, renamed in honor of her husband. About 60 people showed up for the sidewalk event, including state Representatives Jeffrey Sanchez and Liz Malia.
"This place here is going to have your daddy's name," Sanchez said as he looked at Alexa and Alexander Zayas, ages 4 and 7. "We're going to keep your daddy's memory alive."
Moments later, organizers handed Suheil Zayas several framed letters, including a replica of a plaque that will be on the wall of the center. The center is operated by the Puerto Rican Veterans Association, host of the event.
"It's an incredible honor. Now my kids will grow up, and they will pass by a place named after their father," said Zayas, as her children played nearby.
"They both already know that he died as a hero," she said.
Zayas said her husband, a native of Dorchester, entered the Army in April 2004 to "take care of his family."
"He said the Army was the place that he wanted to be, and he told me that he would go back if he had to do it again," she said. "It's sad to see a lot of families losing their loved ones, but I'm 100 percent proud of what he did."
Zayas, 29, was living at Fort Campbell, Ky. with his family.
He then was deployed to Iraq this year. He was killed by an improvised explosive device while patrolling the streets of Baghdad. Weeks before, he was wounded by a similar type of weapon; he received a Purple Heart for those wounds.
He had been scheduled to return to the United States in October.
Like Zayas, Booth, 23, grew up dreaming of becoming a soldier. But he was specific about what branch he wanted to serve in: the Marines.
Booth graduated in 2001 from St. John's High School in Shrewsbury, and attended The Citadel military college in South Carolina, where in 2005 he graduated with a degree in criminal justice and was given a commission as a second lieutenant.
He was promoted posthumously to first lieutenant.
In Iraq, Booth gained a reputation among his peers for being able to find caches of weapons during house-to-house searches. But just five weeks after he arrived, Booth was killed by a single bullet to the head that was fired by a sniper in Haditha, which is northwest of Baghdad.
Booth was a father of a 16-month-old girl.
(Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in yesterday's City & Region section about services for two local men killed in Iraq wrongly used the word soldier for a Marine.)
