abele about skysthelimit, a LJ friend. skysthelimit, aka José Mauricio Mena Puerto, was a 23-year-old paramedic. Jose was born in Honduras, but grew up in Las Angeles before joining the military. He did a tour of Afganistan with the 82nd Airborne, followed by a tour of duty in Iraq. After his time in the military, he signed up to work in Baghdad, this time as a civilian contractor with DynCorp.José Mauricio Mena Puerto
January 26th, 1982 - November 30th, 2004
His last post to LiveJournal was on Thanksgiving night, 2004. After that, no word.
abele wanted me to ask around with my friends in Iraq and find out whether anyone knew what happened to José, but she found this article tonight, (here's a Google translation) in the newspaper La Prensa. Apparently, he died shortly after Thanksgiving; by December 11th, he was returned to the U.S., where he was buried with full honors.None of his LiveJournal friends knew until now that he died in Iraq. Nobody knew, apparently, because there was no story in an American paper that I was able to find. Not even his friends who commented in his journal knew.
But now we know. As per LiveJournal tradition, I hope that his last post becomes a memorial to him, and that those who knew him never have to ask what happenned to José. It's the least we can do, really.
