Corona soldier killed in Iraq to be buried

The services for 23-year-old Army Sergeant Jose Gomez from Corona, killed last week in Iraq, will be held at Funeraria Rivera, located at 104th Street and 37th Avenue, on Monday and Tuesday May 8 and 9, his family announced.
“I’m destroyed. I feel as though I am dead,” said Maria Gomez, mother of Sgt. Jose Gomez, at her home.
On Friday, April 28, Gomez was killed when a roadside bomb tore through his Humvee in Baghdad. The explosion killed both Gomez and another soldier, Sgt. Bryant Herlem, 37, of Copperas Cove, TX.
The soldiers were part of the 10th Calvary, 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division of Fort Hood, Texas, according to the Defense Department.
Gomez was scheduled to finish his second tour next month and planned to marry his fianc’ee, Marie Canario, 21, of Mastic, L.I., later this year.
Gomez, whose first tour ended in October 2003, had met Canario at the Queens Center Mall, and proposed to her at Christmas. According to published reports, he had waited to tell her that he was heading back to Iraq – until right before his deployment in August – to spare her worrying that he would meet the same fate that his former fianc’ee had suffered.
Mrs. Gomez said that on April 28, at 5 p.m. the Army came to tell her that her son was killed in combat. Two officers and a Spanish translator told the family the cruel news.The mother said that every Saturday, her son used to call her.
“Last Saturday he called me and told me that he was coming home on June 6.
I want to believe that this is a nightmare, a mistake, and he will be here in June,” said Mrs. Gomez.
According to Felix Jimenez, who is Maria’s husband, his stepson was a terrific person and a wonderful son. “When he went to the war in Iraq for the second time in August (of last year) he didn’t say anything to his mother, he didn’t want her to suffer. He knew the pain of losing someone because of the war. His first fianc’ee, Analaura Esparza-Gutierrez was killed in the same circumstances that he was – a bomb destroyed her Humvee too,” said Jimenez.
“Instead of going to his wedding, we are going to go to his funeral,” Jimenez said.
On Wednesday, May 10, Gomez will be laid to rest at St. Michael’s Cemetery in Astoria.