Roberto Carlos "Robert" Baez
BAEZ, ROBERTO CARLOS
PFC US ARMY
PERSIAN GULF, IRAQ
DATE OF BIRTH: 10/30/1985
DATE OF DEATH: 10/03/2005
BURIED AT: SECTION 54 SITE 93
BAY PINES NATIONAL CEMETERY
P.O. BOX 477 BAY PINES , FL 33744
(727) 398-9426
BELOW IS SOME ARTICLES AND AN OBITUARY WHICH WAS PLACED IN THE NEWSPAPERS.
BAEZ, Roberto Carlos "Robert," 19, of Tampa, died during combat in Iraq October 3, 2005. Born in Queens, N.Y., Robert played in the Northwest Little League in his younger years, and was a 2004 graduate of Alonso High School in Tampa. Roberto joined the Army after his graduation. He is survived by his loving family, parents, Carlos and Jeannette; brother, Juan Carlos all of Tampa; grandmothers, Vitalia Mordan and Luz Carrasco of the Dominican Republic. He will be missed by all his family and innumerable friends. Wake services will be held 4-8 p.m. Tuesday, October 11, at the Blount & Curry Funeral Home West Chapel, on the corner of West Hillsborough Avenue and Silvermill Drive. A funeral Mass will be held Wednesday, October, 12, 2005, at Incarnation Catholic Church in Tampa. Burial will follow at Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Pete.
Published in the TBO.com on 10/10/2005.
---------------------------------------------------
TAMPA - There were no longwinded eulogies for Roberto Carlos Baez, no celebration of his life, just Biblical verses and prayers at his Catholic Mass.
But it was enough for family and friends who, choking back tears at the Incarnation Catholic Church in Tampa, wailed at the burial at Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Petersburg.
Baez's mother, Jeanette Carrasco Baez, hugged his silvery gray casket. The 21-gun salute had sounded, taps had played, but she didn't want to let go of her son.
The 19-year-old Army private first class and two other paratroopers died in Iraq after stepping on an improvised bomb in Haqlaniyah on Oct. 3. They were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
Since the start of the Iraq war, 86 Floridians have been killed. Baez was the 19th person killed from the Tampa Bay area and the third buried at Bay Pines, according to Oscar Seara, public affairs officer at Bay Pines.
Before he went to the Middle East, Baez tried to put relatives at ease, hoping he would be out of harm's way.
"He had told me not to worry, that he was not going to be in the front lines," said his uncle, Jose Carbuccia, in Spanish at the cemetery.
"He was going to be assigned to guard a jail," Carbuccia added. "Then look. They sent him to the front lines and this happens."
Carbuccia, who traveled from the Dominican Republic for the funeral, said Baez was respectful and popular.
Baez was a mentor for his peers, an athlete and a leader who decided serving his country was honorable, family spokeswoman Narcissa Junkas said.
"He was very mature for his age," she said. "He was always courteous and aware. He was truly wonderful and very outgoing."
A tight-knit group of about 100 people, including baseball teammates and friends, listened to the Mass in Spanish as the Rev. Eugenio Gancarz said, although it was difficult to believe, Baez was in a better place.
Baez's father, Carlos Baez, is from Boca Chica, a small resort town in the Dominican Republic. He met his wife in New York, where Roberto Baez was born. The family moved to Tampa.
After graduating from Alonso High School in 2004, Roberto Baez joined the Army.
Vanessa Caro, 19, said she met Baez at Webb Middle School, and they were friends ever since. Caro said her friend was excited to join the armed forces.
Caro learned of his death from a radio news report. She was stunned to hear he was gone."I would be on the phone with him for hours," Caro said. "He could put anybody in a good mood. He was such a good person."
ROBERTO CARLOS BAEZ
BORN: Oct. 20, 1985, in Queens, N.Y.
DIED: Oct. 3, 2005, in Haqlaniyah, Iraq
EDUCATION: Alonso High School, 2004 graduate
SURVIVORS: Parents, Carlos and Jeannette, of Tampa; brother, Juan Carlos, of Tampa; and grandmothers, Vitalia Mordan and Luz Carrasco, both of the Dominican Republic
"He had told me not to worry, that he was not going to be in the front lines."
JOSE CARBUCCIA Uncle
"He could put anybody in a good mood."
VANESSA CARO Longtime friend
Publish in the Tampa Tribune on 10/12/05
TAMPA - The funeral Mass for Army Pfc. Roberto "Robert" Baez was almost entirely in Spanish.
The memorial program depicted a gleaming Liberty Bell above an American flag. It, too, was printed in Spanish.
Born: 30 de Octubre 1985. Queens, New York.
Died: 3 de Octubre 2005. Iraq.
Baez, 19, was killed in Iraq after an explosion leveled his Humvee.
The Mass Wednesday at Incarnation Catholic Church, attended by 30 family members and friends, recalled Baez's sacrifice in a war that has cut deeply across the nation, stealing sons and daughters from heartland farm towns to Tampa's Dominican community.
Baez's father, Carlos, who works for an airport caterer, and his mother, Jeannette Carrasco, a teacher's aide, came from the Dominican Republic.
They had hoped their youngest son would study psychiatry after the Army.
"Everyone that comes to this country is looking for the American dream for them and their kids to live in freedom," the Rev. Eugene Gancarz said after he led the service. "We feel the pain, the sorrow of the family. A very young man has died."
The Associated Press reports that at least 1,960 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.
From Florida, 103 have died, including 12 from Hillsborough, three from Pinellas, three from Pasco and two from Citrus counties, according to a Times analysis of Defense Department information.
"It's only occasions like these when it really hits home - that young men and young women are dying for our sake," the Rev. Eric Hunter told those gathered at Baez's funeral.
He prayed that the Lord would bring the troops quickly and safely home.
Uniformed members of the 260th Quartermaster Battalion from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., wheeled Baez's casket in and out of the church.
Sgt. Michael Peagler carried a folded American flag for Carrasco, who leaned heavily on her husband, Carlos Baez.
In the pews sat Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division of Fort Bragg, N.C., where Baez was based. .
In the past 10 days, Caldwell's division has lost eight paratroopers in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.
They were from North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, Ohio and Louisiana.
"You can see it's all across the United States of America," Caldwell said. "Those are brothers in arms."
Caldwell planned to attend the funeral of each, giving families some solace by telling them how much their sons meant to the nation.
He said he told the Baez family that Baez, an Alonso High School graduate, was "one you could just look at and tell he was going to be a future leader in America."
Then the major general got into a car, which took him to Bay Pines National Cemetery, where the paratrooper's gray casket was lowered into the ground
Publish in The St. Pete Times on 10/13/05
TAMPA - There was regret in Army Pfc. Roberto C. Baez's bedroom Wednesday.
His mother wished she never let her 19-year-old son join the military. His brother wished he would have coaxed Baez into the Navy.
But it's unlikely either could have persuaded the headstrong and confident Baez differently. The Army was his first job. He signed up for six years until his mother went back to the recruiter and changed his enlistment to three years. He slept next to a checklist that included running, pushups and situps, things to do to prepare for boot camp. He was proud of his meager pay and came home always asking his mother what she wanted to buy.
Baez died in Haqlaniyah, Iraq, on Monday, when an explosive device blew up near his Humvee, according to the Defense Department. He had three diplomas - infantry training, javelin course and airborne course - framed on his dresser. He had a can of spray starch on his entertainment center. He had an "Army of One" bumper sticker above his bed.
Baez was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
"We did not enjoy our son after high school," Baez's mother, Jeannette Carrasco, 48, wailed from a hallway. The recruiter had stolen him away too quickly after his graduation from Tampa's Alonso High School.
Now, there is a blue candle pooling wax in the living room where Baez's picture sits on a small stand. He wears Army fatigues behind a stretched tight American Flag.
Nearby a stack of pictures are tossed on the dining room table. A picture of mother wrapping her arms around the neck of her youngest son, "Robertcito," little Robert, stands out.
"He really had everything," said Carlos Baez, 57, Roberto's father and Carrasco's husband. "A good friend; a good son."
Juan Carlos Baez, 28, said his brother wanted to join the military after Sept. 11, 2001. He used to quiz Juan about the Navy.
"He wanted me to talk to him about the Navy," Juan Carlos said. "I wasn't ready. I was going through some hard times, and I didn't open up about it."
So Roberto joined the Army when his time came.
"I would have rather he joined the Navy," Juan Carlos said, standing in his room, where baseball trophies and an apple-shaped pigg y bank sits on his dresser. "I just would have wanted to talk to him about the Navy or veer him to the Navy."
Roberto Baez's mother said he wanted the Army to pay for college so he could be a psychiatrist. He was good with people. He would befriend children. He would speak to seniors. He would give up his television for his young niece.
But his best friend of 16 years, Brian Pena, 18, said he was content finishing his career in the Army. He wanted to put in 20 years, Pena said.
"He wanted it to be his career," Pena said. "It was his first job, and he was proud of it."
Nearby are Baez's books: The U.S. Army Infantry Training Brigade. The Iraq War. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
His mother knows he was meant for the military. He used to shut off the ceiling fan and air conditioner on Saturday mornings just to sweep his room when other teens would be sleeping.
"He was like a little big boy," she said.
"I'm upset," Carrasco added. "Being so young, they send him over there, and I don't agree with that. They're young kids."
Then she got tired of talking.
"I never get tired of talking unless someone hurt me," Carrasco said.
"It hurts me not to have him here."
Published in The St. Pete Times on 10/6/05
BAEZ, ROBERTO CARLOS
PFC US ARMY
PERSIAN GULF, IRAQ
DATE OF BIRTH: 10/30/1985
DATE OF DEATH: 10/03/2005
BURIED AT: SECTION 54 SITE 93
BAY PINES NATIONAL CEMETERY
P.O. BOX 477 BAY PINES , FL 33744
(727) 398-9426
BELOW IS SOME ARTICLES AND AN OBITUARY WHICH WAS PLACED IN THE NEWSPAPERS.
BAEZ, Roberto Carlos "Robert," 19, of Tampa, died during combat in Iraq October 3, 2005. Born in Queens, N.Y., Robert played in the Northwest Little League in his younger years, and was a 2004 graduate of Alonso High School in Tampa. Roberto joined the Army after his graduation. He is survived by his loving family, parents, Carlos and Jeannette; brother, Juan Carlos all of Tampa; grandmothers, Vitalia Mordan and Luz Carrasco of the Dominican Republic. He will be missed by all his family and innumerable friends. Wake services will be held 4-8 p.m. Tuesday, October 11, at the Blount & Curry Funeral Home West Chapel, on the corner of West Hillsborough Avenue and Silvermill Drive. A funeral Mass will be held Wednesday, October, 12, 2005, at Incarnation Catholic Church in Tampa. Burial will follow at Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Pete.
Published in the TBO.com on 10/10/2005.
---------------------------------------------------
TAMPA - There were no longwinded eulogies for Roberto Carlos Baez, no celebration of his life, just Biblical verses and prayers at his Catholic Mass.
But it was enough for family and friends who, choking back tears at the Incarnation Catholic Church in Tampa, wailed at the burial at Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Petersburg.
Baez's mother, Jeanette Carrasco Baez, hugged his silvery gray casket. The 21-gun salute had sounded, taps had played, but she didn't want to let go of her son.
The 19-year-old Army private first class and two other paratroopers died in Iraq after stepping on an improvised bomb in Haqlaniyah on Oct. 3. They were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
Since the start of the Iraq war, 86 Floridians have been killed. Baez was the 19th person killed from the Tampa Bay area and the third buried at Bay Pines, according to Oscar Seara, public affairs officer at Bay Pines.
Before he went to the Middle East, Baez tried to put relatives at ease, hoping he would be out of harm's way.
"He had told me not to worry, that he was not going to be in the front lines," said his uncle, Jose Carbuccia, in Spanish at the cemetery.
"He was going to be assigned to guard a jail," Carbuccia added. "Then look. They sent him to the front lines and this happens."
Carbuccia, who traveled from the Dominican Republic for the funeral, said Baez was respectful and popular.
Baez was a mentor for his peers, an athlete and a leader who decided serving his country was honorable, family spokeswoman Narcissa Junkas said.
"He was very mature for his age," she said. "He was always courteous and aware. He was truly wonderful and very outgoing."
A tight-knit group of about 100 people, including baseball teammates and friends, listened to the Mass in Spanish as the Rev. Eugenio Gancarz said, although it was difficult to believe, Baez was in a better place.
Baez's father, Carlos Baez, is from Boca Chica, a small resort town in the Dominican Republic. He met his wife in New York, where Roberto Baez was born. The family moved to Tampa.
After graduating from Alonso High School in 2004, Roberto Baez joined the Army.
Vanessa Caro, 19, said she met Baez at Webb Middle School, and they were friends ever since. Caro said her friend was excited to join the armed forces.
Caro learned of his death from a radio news report. She was stunned to hear he was gone."I would be on the phone with him for hours," Caro said. "He could put anybody in a good mood. He was such a good person."
ROBERTO CARLOS BAEZ
BORN: Oct. 20, 1985, in Queens, N.Y.
DIED: Oct. 3, 2005, in Haqlaniyah, Iraq
EDUCATION: Alonso High School, 2004 graduate
SURVIVORS: Parents, Carlos and Jeannette, of Tampa; brother, Juan Carlos, of Tampa; and grandmothers, Vitalia Mordan and Luz Carrasco, both of the Dominican Republic
"He had told me not to worry, that he was not going to be in the front lines."
JOSE CARBUCCIA Uncle
"He could put anybody in a good mood."
VANESSA CARO Longtime friend
Publish in the Tampa Tribune on 10/12/05
TAMPA - The funeral Mass for Army Pfc. Roberto "Robert" Baez was almost entirely in Spanish.
The memorial program depicted a gleaming Liberty Bell above an American flag. It, too, was printed in Spanish.
Born: 30 de Octubre 1985. Queens, New York.
Died: 3 de Octubre 2005. Iraq.
Baez, 19, was killed in Iraq after an explosion leveled his Humvee.
The Mass Wednesday at Incarnation Catholic Church, attended by 30 family members and friends, recalled Baez's sacrifice in a war that has cut deeply across the nation, stealing sons and daughters from heartland farm towns to Tampa's Dominican community.
Baez's father, Carlos, who works for an airport caterer, and his mother, Jeannette Carrasco, a teacher's aide, came from the Dominican Republic.
They had hoped their youngest son would study psychiatry after the Army.
"Everyone that comes to this country is looking for the American dream for them and their kids to live in freedom," the Rev. Eugene Gancarz said after he led the service. "We feel the pain, the sorrow of the family. A very young man has died."
The Associated Press reports that at least 1,960 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.
From Florida, 103 have died, including 12 from Hillsborough, three from Pinellas, three from Pasco and two from Citrus counties, according to a Times analysis of Defense Department information.
"It's only occasions like these when it really hits home - that young men and young women are dying for our sake," the Rev. Eric Hunter told those gathered at Baez's funeral.
He prayed that the Lord would bring the troops quickly and safely home.
Uniformed members of the 260th Quartermaster Battalion from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., wheeled Baez's casket in and out of the church.
Sgt. Michael Peagler carried a folded American flag for Carrasco, who leaned heavily on her husband, Carlos Baez.
In the pews sat Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division of Fort Bragg, N.C., where Baez was based. .
In the past 10 days, Caldwell's division has lost eight paratroopers in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.
They were from North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, Ohio and Louisiana.
"You can see it's all across the United States of America," Caldwell said. "Those are brothers in arms."
Caldwell planned to attend the funeral of each, giving families some solace by telling them how much their sons meant to the nation.
He said he told the Baez family that Baez, an Alonso High School graduate, was "one you could just look at and tell he was going to be a future leader in America."
Then the major general got into a car, which took him to Bay Pines National Cemetery, where the paratrooper's gray casket was lowered into the ground
Publish in The St. Pete Times on 10/13/05
TAMPA - There was regret in Army Pfc. Roberto C. Baez's bedroom Wednesday.
His mother wished she never let her 19-year-old son join the military. His brother wished he would have coaxed Baez into the Navy.
But it's unlikely either could have persuaded the headstrong and confident Baez differently. The Army was his first job. He signed up for six years until his mother went back to the recruiter and changed his enlistment to three years. He slept next to a checklist that included running, pushups and situps, things to do to prepare for boot camp. He was proud of his meager pay and came home always asking his mother what she wanted to buy.
Baez died in Haqlaniyah, Iraq, on Monday, when an explosive device blew up near his Humvee, according to the Defense Department. He had three diplomas - infantry training, javelin course and airborne course - framed on his dresser. He had a can of spray starch on his entertainment center. He had an "Army of One" bumper sticker above his bed.
Baez was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
"We did not enjoy our son after high school," Baez's mother, Jeannette Carrasco, 48, wailed from a hallway. The recruiter had stolen him away too quickly after his graduation from Tampa's Alonso High School.
Now, there is a blue candle pooling wax in the living room where Baez's picture sits on a small stand. He wears Army fatigues behind a stretched tight American Flag.
Nearby a stack of pictures are tossed on the dining room table. A picture of mother wrapping her arms around the neck of her youngest son, "Robertcito," little Robert, stands out.
"He really had everything," said Carlos Baez, 57, Roberto's father and Carrasco's husband. "A good friend; a good son."
Juan Carlos Baez, 28, said his brother wanted to join the military after Sept. 11, 2001. He used to quiz Juan about the Navy.
"He wanted me to talk to him about the Navy," Juan Carlos said. "I wasn't ready. I was going through some hard times, and I didn't open up about it."
So Roberto joined the Army when his time came.
"I would have rather he joined the Navy," Juan Carlos said, standing in his room, where baseball trophies and an apple-shaped pigg y bank sits on his dresser. "I just would have wanted to talk to him about the Navy or veer him to the Navy."
Roberto Baez's mother said he wanted the Army to pay for college so he could be a psychiatrist. He was good with people. He would befriend children. He would speak to seniors. He would give up his television for his young niece.
But his best friend of 16 years, Brian Pena, 18, said he was content finishing his career in the Army. He wanted to put in 20 years, Pena said.
"He wanted it to be his career," Pena said. "It was his first job, and he was proud of it."
Nearby are Baez's books: The U.S. Army Infantry Training Brigade. The Iraq War. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
His mother knows he was meant for the military. He used to shut off the ceiling fan and air conditioner on Saturday mornings just to sweep his room when other teens would be sleeping.
"He was like a little big boy," she said.
"I'm upset," Carrasco added. "Being so young, they send him over there, and I don't agree with that. They're young kids."
Then she got tired of talking.
"I never get tired of talking unless someone hurt me," Carrasco said.
"It hurts me not to have him here."
Published in The St. Pete Times on 10/6/05
Roberto Carlos "Robert" Baez
BAEZ, ROBERTO CARLOS
PFC US ARMY
PERSIAN GULF, IRAQ
DATE OF BIRTH: 10/30/1985
DATE OF DEATH: 10/03/2005
BURIED AT: SECTION 54 SITE 93
BAY PINES NATIONAL CEMETERY
P.O. BOX 477 BAY PINES , FL 33744
(727) 398-9426
BELOW IS SOME ARTICLES AND AN OBITUARY WHICH WAS PLACED IN THE NEWSPAPERS.
BAEZ, Roberto Carlos "Robert," 19, of Tampa, died during combat in Iraq October 3, 2005. Born in Queens, N.Y., Robert played in the Northwest Little League in his younger years, and was a 2004 graduate of Alonso High School in Tampa. Roberto joined the Army after his graduation. He is survived by his loving family, parents, Carlos and Jeannette; brother, Juan Carlos all of Tampa; grandmothers, Vitalia Mordan and Luz Carrasco of the Dominican Republic. He will be missed by all his family and innumerable friends. Wake services will be held 4-8 p.m. Tuesday, October 11, at the Blount & Curry Funeral Home West Chapel, on the corner of West Hillsborough Avenue and Silvermill Drive. A funeral Mass will be held Wednesday, October, 12, 2005, at Incarnation Catholic Church in Tampa. Burial will follow at Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Pete.
Published in the TBO.com on 10/10/2005.
---------------------------------------------------
TAMPA - There were no longwinded eulogies for Roberto Carlos Baez, no celebration of his life, just Biblical verses and prayers at his Catholic Mass.
But it was enough for family and friends who, choking back tears at the Incarnation Catholic Church in Tampa, wailed at the burial at Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Petersburg.
Baez's mother, Jeanette Carrasco Baez, hugged his silvery gray casket. The 21-gun salute had sounded, taps had played, but she didn't want to let go of her son.
The 19-year-old Army private first class and two other paratroopers died in Iraq after stepping on an improvised bomb in Haqlaniyah on Oct. 3. They were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
Since the start of the Iraq war, 86 Floridians have been killed. Baez was the 19th person killed from the Tampa Bay area and the third buried at Bay Pines, according to Oscar Seara, public affairs officer at Bay Pines.
Before he went to the Middle East, Baez tried to put relatives at ease, hoping he would be out of harm's way.
"He had told me not to worry, that he was not going to be in the front lines," said his uncle, Jose Carbuccia, in Spanish at the cemetery.
"He was going to be assigned to guard a jail," Carbuccia added. "Then look. They sent him to the front lines and this happens."
Carbuccia, who traveled from the Dominican Republic for the funeral, said Baez was respectful and popular.
Baez was a mentor for his peers, an athlete and a leader who decided serving his country was honorable, family spokeswoman Narcissa Junkas said.
"He was very mature for his age," she said. "He was always courteous and aware. He was truly wonderful and very outgoing."
A tight-knit group of about 100 people, including baseball teammates and friends, listened to the Mass in Spanish as the Rev. Eugenio Gancarz said, although it was difficult to believe, Baez was in a better place.
Baez's father, Carlos Baez, is from Boca Chica, a small resort town in the Dominican Republic. He met his wife in New York, where Roberto Baez was born. The family moved to Tampa.
After graduating from Alonso High School in 2004, Roberto Baez joined the Army.
Vanessa Caro, 19, said she met Baez at Webb Middle School, and they were friends ever since. Caro said her friend was excited to join the armed forces.
Caro learned of his death from a radio news report. She was stunned to hear he was gone."I would be on the phone with him for hours," Caro said. "He could put anybody in a good mood. He was such a good person."
ROBERTO CARLOS BAEZ
BORN: Oct. 20, 1985, in Queens, N.Y.
DIED: Oct. 3, 2005, in Haqlaniyah, Iraq
EDUCATION: Alonso High School, 2004 graduate
SURVIVORS: Parents, Carlos and Jeannette, of Tampa; brother, Juan Carlos, of Tampa; and grandmothers, Vitalia Mordan and Luz Carrasco, both of the Dominican Republic
"He had told me not to worry, that he was not going to be in the front lines."
JOSE CARBUCCIA Uncle
"He could put anybody in a good mood."
VANESSA CARO Longtime friend
Publish in the Tampa Tribune on 10/12/05
TAMPA - The funeral Mass for Army Pfc. Roberto "Robert" Baez was almost entirely in Spanish.
The memorial program depicted a gleaming Liberty Bell above an American flag. It, too, was printed in Spanish.
Born: 30 de Octubre 1985. Queens, New York.
Died: 3 de Octubre 2005. Iraq.
Baez, 19, was killed in Iraq after an explosion leveled his Humvee.
The Mass Wednesday at Incarnation Catholic Church, attended by 30 family members and friends, recalled Baez's sacrifice in a war that has cut deeply across the nation, stealing sons and daughters from heartland farm towns to Tampa's Dominican community.
Baez's father, Carlos, who works for an airport caterer, and his mother, Jeannette Carrasco, a teacher's aide, came from the Dominican Republic.
They had hoped their youngest son would study psychiatry after the Army.
"Everyone that comes to this country is looking for the American dream for them and their kids to live in freedom," the Rev. Eugene Gancarz said after he led the service. "We feel the pain, the sorrow of the family. A very young man has died."
The Associated Press reports that at least 1,960 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.
From Florida, 103 have died, including 12 from Hillsborough, three from Pinellas, three from Pasco and two from Citrus counties, according to a Times analysis of Defense Department information.
"It's only occasions like these when it really hits home - that young men and young women are dying for our sake," the Rev. Eric Hunter told those gathered at Baez's funeral.
He prayed that the Lord would bring the troops quickly and safely home.
Uniformed members of the 260th Quartermaster Battalion from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., wheeled Baez's casket in and out of the church.
Sgt. Michael Peagler carried a folded American flag for Carrasco, who leaned heavily on her husband, Carlos Baez.
In the pews sat Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division of Fort Bragg, N.C., where Baez was based. .
In the past 10 days, Caldwell's division has lost eight paratroopers in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.
They were from North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, Ohio and Louisiana.
"You can see it's all across the United States of America," Caldwell said. "Those are brothers in arms."
Caldwell planned to attend the funeral of each, giving families some solace by telling them how much their sons meant to the nation.
He said he told the Baez family that Baez, an Alonso High School graduate, was "one you could just look at and tell he was going to be a future leader in America."
Then the major general got into a car, which took him to Bay Pines National Cemetery, where the paratrooper's gray casket was lowered into the ground
Publish in The St. Pete Times on 10/13/05
TAMPA - There was regret in Army Pfc. Roberto C. Baez's bedroom Wednesday.
His mother wished she never let her 19-year-old son join the military. His brother wished he would have coaxed Baez into the Navy.
But it's unlikely either could have persuaded the headstrong and confident Baez differently. The Army was his first job. He signed up for six years until his mother went back to the recruiter and changed his enlistment to three years. He slept next to a checklist that included running, pushups and situps, things to do to prepare for boot camp. He was proud of his meager pay and came home always asking his mother what she wanted to buy.
Baez died in Haqlaniyah, Iraq, on Monday, when an explosive device blew up near his Humvee, according to the Defense Department. He had three diplomas - infantry training, javelin course and airborne course - framed on his dresser. He had a can of spray starch on his entertainment center. He had an "Army of One" bumper sticker above his bed.
Baez was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
"We did not enjoy our son after high school," Baez's mother, Jeannette Carrasco, 48, wailed from a hallway. The recruiter had stolen him away too quickly after his graduation from Tampa's Alonso High School.
Now, there is a blue candle pooling wax in the living room where Baez's picture sits on a small stand. He wears Army fatigues behind a stretched tight American Flag.
Nearby a stack of pictures are tossed on the dining room table. A picture of mother wrapping her arms around the neck of her youngest son, "Robertcito," little Robert, stands out.
"He really had everything," said Carlos Baez, 57, Roberto's father and Carrasco's husband. "A good friend; a good son."
Juan Carlos Baez, 28, said his brother wanted to join the military after Sept. 11, 2001. He used to quiz Juan about the Navy.
"He wanted me to talk to him about the Navy," Juan Carlos said. "I wasn't ready. I was going through some hard times, and I didn't open up about it."
So Roberto joined the Army when his time came.
"I would have rather he joined the Navy," Juan Carlos said, standing in his room, where baseball trophies and an apple-shaped pigg y bank sits on his dresser. "I just would have wanted to talk to him about the Navy or veer him to the Navy."
Roberto Baez's mother said he wanted the Army to pay for college so he could be a psychiatrist. He was good with people. He would befriend children. He would speak to seniors. He would give up his television for his young niece.
But his best friend of 16 years, Brian Pena, 18, said he was content finishing his career in the Army. He wanted to put in 20 years, Pena said.
"He wanted it to be his career," Pena said. "It was his first job, and he was proud of it."
Nearby are Baez's books: The U.S. Army Infantry Training Brigade. The Iraq War. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
His mother knows he was meant for the military. He used to shut off the ceiling fan and air conditioner on Saturday mornings just to sweep his room when other teens would be sleeping.
"He was like a little big boy," she said.
"I'm upset," Carrasco added. "Being so young, they send him over there, and I don't agree with that. They're young kids."
Then she got tired of talking.
"I never get tired of talking unless someone hurt me," Carrasco said.
"It hurts me not to have him here."
Published in The St. Pete Times on 10/6/05
BAEZ, ROBERTO CARLOS
PFC US ARMY
PERSIAN GULF, IRAQ
DATE OF BIRTH: 10/30/1985
DATE OF DEATH: 10/03/2005
BURIED AT: SECTION 54 SITE 93
BAY PINES NATIONAL CEMETERY
P.O. BOX 477 BAY PINES , FL 33744
(727) 398-9426
BELOW IS SOME ARTICLES AND AN OBITUARY WHICH WAS PLACED IN THE NEWSPAPERS.
BAEZ, Roberto Carlos "Robert," 19, of Tampa, died during combat in Iraq October 3, 2005. Born in Queens, N.Y., Robert played in the Northwest Little League in his younger years, and was a 2004 graduate of Alonso High School in Tampa. Roberto joined the Army after his graduation. He is survived by his loving family, parents, Carlos and Jeannette; brother, Juan Carlos all of Tampa; grandmothers, Vitalia Mordan and Luz Carrasco of the Dominican Republic. He will be missed by all his family and innumerable friends. Wake services will be held 4-8 p.m. Tuesday, October 11, at the Blount & Curry Funeral Home West Chapel, on the corner of West Hillsborough Avenue and Silvermill Drive. A funeral Mass will be held Wednesday, October, 12, 2005, at Incarnation Catholic Church in Tampa. Burial will follow at Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Pete.
Published in the TBO.com on 10/10/2005.
---------------------------------------------------
TAMPA - There were no longwinded eulogies for Roberto Carlos Baez, no celebration of his life, just Biblical verses and prayers at his Catholic Mass.
But it was enough for family and friends who, choking back tears at the Incarnation Catholic Church in Tampa, wailed at the burial at Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Petersburg.
Baez's mother, Jeanette Carrasco Baez, hugged his silvery gray casket. The 21-gun salute had sounded, taps had played, but she didn't want to let go of her son.
The 19-year-old Army private first class and two other paratroopers died in Iraq after stepping on an improvised bomb in Haqlaniyah on Oct. 3. They were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
Since the start of the Iraq war, 86 Floridians have been killed. Baez was the 19th person killed from the Tampa Bay area and the third buried at Bay Pines, according to Oscar Seara, public affairs officer at Bay Pines.
Before he went to the Middle East, Baez tried to put relatives at ease, hoping he would be out of harm's way.
"He had told me not to worry, that he was not going to be in the front lines," said his uncle, Jose Carbuccia, in Spanish at the cemetery.
"He was going to be assigned to guard a jail," Carbuccia added. "Then look. They sent him to the front lines and this happens."
Carbuccia, who traveled from the Dominican Republic for the funeral, said Baez was respectful and popular.
Baez was a mentor for his peers, an athlete and a leader who decided serving his country was honorable, family spokeswoman Narcissa Junkas said.
"He was very mature for his age," she said. "He was always courteous and aware. He was truly wonderful and very outgoing."
A tight-knit group of about 100 people, including baseball teammates and friends, listened to the Mass in Spanish as the Rev. Eugenio Gancarz said, although it was difficult to believe, Baez was in a better place.
Baez's father, Carlos Baez, is from Boca Chica, a small resort town in the Dominican Republic. He met his wife in New York, where Roberto Baez was born. The family moved to Tampa.
After graduating from Alonso High School in 2004, Roberto Baez joined the Army.
Vanessa Caro, 19, said she met Baez at Webb Middle School, and they were friends ever since. Caro said her friend was excited to join the armed forces.
Caro learned of his death from a radio news report. She was stunned to hear he was gone."I would be on the phone with him for hours," Caro said. "He could put anybody in a good mood. He was such a good person."
ROBERTO CARLOS BAEZ
BORN: Oct. 20, 1985, in Queens, N.Y.
DIED: Oct. 3, 2005, in Haqlaniyah, Iraq
EDUCATION: Alonso High School, 2004 graduate
SURVIVORS: Parents, Carlos and Jeannette, of Tampa; brother, Juan Carlos, of Tampa; and grandmothers, Vitalia Mordan and Luz Carrasco, both of the Dominican Republic
"He had told me not to worry, that he was not going to be in the front lines."
JOSE CARBUCCIA Uncle
"He could put anybody in a good mood."
VANESSA CARO Longtime friend
Publish in the Tampa Tribune on 10/12/05
TAMPA - The funeral Mass for Army Pfc. Roberto "Robert" Baez was almost entirely in Spanish.
The memorial program depicted a gleaming Liberty Bell above an American flag. It, too, was printed in Spanish.
Born: 30 de Octubre 1985. Queens, New York.
Died: 3 de Octubre 2005. Iraq.
Baez, 19, was killed in Iraq after an explosion leveled his Humvee.
The Mass Wednesday at Incarnation Catholic Church, attended by 30 family members and friends, recalled Baez's sacrifice in a war that has cut deeply across the nation, stealing sons and daughters from heartland farm towns to Tampa's Dominican community.
Baez's father, Carlos, who works for an airport caterer, and his mother, Jeannette Carrasco, a teacher's aide, came from the Dominican Republic.
They had hoped their youngest son would study psychiatry after the Army.
"Everyone that comes to this country is looking for the American dream for them and their kids to live in freedom," the Rev. Eugene Gancarz said after he led the service. "We feel the pain, the sorrow of the family. A very young man has died."
The Associated Press reports that at least 1,960 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.
From Florida, 103 have died, including 12 from Hillsborough, three from Pinellas, three from Pasco and two from Citrus counties, according to a Times analysis of Defense Department information.
"It's only occasions like these when it really hits home - that young men and young women are dying for our sake," the Rev. Eric Hunter told those gathered at Baez's funeral.
He prayed that the Lord would bring the troops quickly and safely home.
Uniformed members of the 260th Quartermaster Battalion from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga., wheeled Baez's casket in and out of the church.
Sgt. Michael Peagler carried a folded American flag for Carrasco, who leaned heavily on her husband, Carlos Baez.
In the pews sat Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division of Fort Bragg, N.C., where Baez was based. .
In the past 10 days, Caldwell's division has lost eight paratroopers in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.
They were from North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, Ohio and Louisiana.
"You can see it's all across the United States of America," Caldwell said. "Those are brothers in arms."
Caldwell planned to attend the funeral of each, giving families some solace by telling them how much their sons meant to the nation.
He said he told the Baez family that Baez, an Alonso High School graduate, was "one you could just look at and tell he was going to be a future leader in America."
Then the major general got into a car, which took him to Bay Pines National Cemetery, where the paratrooper's gray casket was lowered into the ground
Publish in The St. Pete Times on 10/13/05
TAMPA - There was regret in Army Pfc. Roberto C. Baez's bedroom Wednesday.
His mother wished she never let her 19-year-old son join the military. His brother wished he would have coaxed Baez into the Navy.
But it's unlikely either could have persuaded the headstrong and confident Baez differently. The Army was his first job. He signed up for six years until his mother went back to the recruiter and changed his enlistment to three years. He slept next to a checklist that included running, pushups and situps, things to do to prepare for boot camp. He was proud of his meager pay and came home always asking his mother what she wanted to buy.
Baez died in Haqlaniyah, Iraq, on Monday, when an explosive device blew up near his Humvee, according to the Defense Department. He had three diplomas - infantry training, javelin course and airborne course - framed on his dresser. He had a can of spray starch on his entertainment center. He had an "Army of One" bumper sticker above his bed.
Baez was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.
"We did not enjoy our son after high school," Baez's mother, Jeannette Carrasco, 48, wailed from a hallway. The recruiter had stolen him away too quickly after his graduation from Tampa's Alonso High School.
Now, there is a blue candle pooling wax in the living room where Baez's picture sits on a small stand. He wears Army fatigues behind a stretched tight American Flag.
Nearby a stack of pictures are tossed on the dining room table. A picture of mother wrapping her arms around the neck of her youngest son, "Robertcito," little Robert, stands out.
"He really had everything," said Carlos Baez, 57, Roberto's father and Carrasco's husband. "A good friend; a good son."
Juan Carlos Baez, 28, said his brother wanted to join the military after Sept. 11, 2001. He used to quiz Juan about the Navy.
"He wanted me to talk to him about the Navy," Juan Carlos said. "I wasn't ready. I was going through some hard times, and I didn't open up about it."
So Roberto joined the Army when his time came.
"I would have rather he joined the Navy," Juan Carlos said, standing in his room, where baseball trophies and an apple-shaped pigg y bank sits on his dresser. "I just would have wanted to talk to him about the Navy or veer him to the Navy."
Roberto Baez's mother said he wanted the Army to pay for college so he could be a psychiatrist. He was good with people. He would befriend children. He would speak to seniors. He would give up his television for his young niece.
But his best friend of 16 years, Brian Pena, 18, said he was content finishing his career in the Army. He wanted to put in 20 years, Pena said.
"He wanted it to be his career," Pena said. "It was his first job, and he was proud of it."
Nearby are Baez's books: The U.S. Army Infantry Training Brigade. The Iraq War. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.
His mother knows he was meant for the military. He used to shut off the ceiling fan and air conditioner on Saturday mornings just to sweep his room when other teens would be sleeping.
"He was like a little big boy," she said.
"I'm upset," Carrasco added. "Being so young, they send him over there, and I don't agree with that. They're young kids."
Then she got tired of talking.
"I never get tired of talking unless someone hurt me," Carrasco said.
"It hurts me not to have him here."
Published in The St. Pete Times on 10/6/05
