Marine Pfc. Juan G. Garza

SAN BENITO, Texas — The family of California-based Marine Pfc. Juan G. Garza was informed April 8 that he was killed in Iraq that same day.

Garza was killed by a sniper as he patrolled an airport in Baghdad. He was sent overseas on Dec. 27.

“He was shot in the chest,” his mother, Mary Ann Garza, told the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen, Texas. “He died instantly.”

The last time she spoke with her son was on Thanksgiving Day over the phone, she said. She asked other Marine moms to keep praying for their children to “bring the boys home.” “This one never made it,” she sobbed, clutching a picture of her son in uniform.

News of Garza’s death was announced at San Benito High School, which Garza attended before moving to Temperance, Mich., where he lived with an aunt and uncle and graduated last year from Summerfield High School.

Joseph Palka, principal at Summerfield High School, said Garza was proud to be a Marine and joined right after graduation. He returned to the area during Christmas in uniform to show the students and staff his accomplishments.

“He wanted to show everybody that he made it,” Palka said. “He was so intent on being a Marine. He knew from the start what he was going to do.”

“He was always helping people,” his oldest sister, Vanessa Garza, remembered. Together they had worked the fields in Ohio as migrant workers during the summer, she said.

Jodi Bucher, his aunt in Michigan, said Garza was a little scared to go to Iraq, “but knew it was part of his job.”

Garza had planned to marry his girlfriend, Casey Cole, in 2005, Bucher said, but the couple surprised everyone and tied the knot the day after Christmas. Cole is in the Army, stationed in Washington, D.C.

In Austin, the Texas Senate observed a moment of silence in Garza’s honor.