The Chula Vista Civic Center Library has a collection of 576 historical books about the United States’ war in Iraq.
But for the next week the public can read and learn about the sacrifices made by 710 military personnel from California in “Remembering Our Fallen,” a travelling exhibit which honors and memorializes 14 fallen heroes from the South Bay.
Before the start of the exhibit’s opening ceremony, Sandra Aceves shared a memory of when she first leaned about her son’s death while defending America.
Aceves said she clearly remembers hearing news reports that the deadliest period in the Iraq war had passed and that the war was nearing an end.
She thought her son was safe in the war zone because he was a Navy corpsman and wasn’t on the front lines.
She said she understood that a certain amount of troops were going to be left behind in Iraq for peacekeeping. Her son was one of the few who received orders to stay behind.
Then, she said, the unthinkable happened to her son, Petty Officer Fernando Mendez-Aceves.
“Two months later (after hearing the news reports) he gets ambushed with 12 Marines,” she said. “It was a shock like you cannot imagine and, yes, it was hard at the time for people to place what the pain of a family losing a child to war was.”
Mendez-Aceves, who was from Chula Vista, served in the U.S. Navy for six years before being killed in action at 27 years of age during the battle of Ramadi in Iraq.
Sgt. Michael Martinez, an alumnus of Eastlake High School, is remembered by his mother as an unselfish person with a “smile on his face.”
He enlisted in the Army at age 21 without telling his parents because he wanted to defend America.
Martinez served his country for nearly four years before his death in June 2007 at the age of 24 in Baghdad.
“He was killed with four other soldiers; they were in a roadside bomb and they were attacked,” Armida Martinez said.
At the time Michael left behind a 6-month-old son, Landon Michael, who is now 8.
His father Manuel Martinez, a Vietnam veteran, said he was against the idea of Michael enlisting in the military.
“I was originally against him joining,” Manuel Martinez said. “I felt I paid the dues for all three of my sons. But he decided this is what he wanted to do because he thought he could make a difference and we supported him.”
The exhibit features a photo display honoring military personnel who have died from wounds suffered in a war zone since Sept. 11, 2001.
Attached to some photos are sticky notes with messages that family members post on the photo display.
The display also lists the names, military branch, rank and cause of death of each soldier.
Some displays just have one photo while others have a full photomontage with pictures in their military gear and of them as youths.
The exhibit is on display through Thursday, May 14.
