Spc. Calvin Evangelista Pereda
Soldier with Fayetteville ties killed in IED blast in Afghanistan
By James Halpin
Staffwriter
A solider who was a former resident of Fayetteville has been killed in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said Monday night. Spc. Calvin Evangelista Pereda, 21, died Saturday of injuries sustained after encountering an improvised explosive device while on patrol, the Department of Defense said .
"We're trying our best to keep it together because we know that his mom and his brothers are having it 10 times worse," said Pereda's cousin, Emerald Evangelista Salas, 26, reached Monday in Guam. "So we need to be the strong ones here, because if we all fall apart, then we are not able to move on."
Pereda was born in Guam, the third of five brothers, said his cousin.
As a boy, he loved playing outside in the tropical climate, climbing trees, camping and playing cars, she said.
"Calvin was very respectful, very soft-spoken," said Salas, who learned about her cousin's death Sunday. "We're just going through a lot of emotion right now."
His mother, Rosario Evangelista Pereda, moved the boys to the Fayetteville area in 2000, when Calvin Pereda was about 10 years old, Salas said. She was a single mother and wanted to start a better life for her boys, she said.
Calvin Pereda and his family lived here for several years, and he attended South View High School in Hope Mills.
Salas said Pereda wanted a change when he was a senior, so he left the school to live with his brother, Clifford Pereda, in Oklahoma. He graduated from Lawton High School before returning to North Carolina, Salas said.
He then followed in the footsteps of his mother and two older brothers, joining the Army in March 2010, she said. He was stationed at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska, before deploying to Afghanistan in April.
Pereda was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
Pereda's body was returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday. His mother and oldest brother were there to receive him, Salas said.
His body will remain in Delaware for about a week while an autopsy is conducted. He will then be returned to his homeland, to be buried with the rest of his family, she said.
Salas said Calvin Pereda's grandmother died in April and he missed her funeral because he had just gotten deployed. He was planning to come home for the anniversary of her death next spring, she said.
"It's really hard for our family right now," Salas said. "We had just gotten over her death. She died at the age of 90, and we knew her time was coming.
"But Calvin's death, that one really creeped up on us. "We weren't prepared for that," she said. "I know that joining the Army, yes there's a risk, but when you think deployment, you don't want to think that death follows. You always think the positive."
Robert Lizama, the mayor of Yigo, Guam - Pereda's birthplace - said the death is the 41st for the Mariana Islands since the U.S. began the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the third from Yigo, a village of about 20,000 in northern Guam.
"We honor our fallen soldiers by placing black ribbons with bows on the power poles along Marine Corps Drive to recognize that we honor him for the ultimate sacrifice that he made while serving in the war zone," said Lizama, who is also Pereda's uncle. "We want to pay homage, of course, to one of our sons of Guam.
By James Halpin
Staffwriter
A solider who was a former resident of Fayetteville has been killed in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense said Monday night. Spc. Calvin Evangelista Pereda, 21, died Saturday of injuries sustained after encountering an improvised explosive device while on patrol, the Department of Defense said .
"We're trying our best to keep it together because we know that his mom and his brothers are having it 10 times worse," said Pereda's cousin, Emerald Evangelista Salas, 26, reached Monday in Guam. "So we need to be the strong ones here, because if we all fall apart, then we are not able to move on."
Pereda was born in Guam, the third of five brothers, said his cousin.
As a boy, he loved playing outside in the tropical climate, climbing trees, camping and playing cars, she said.
"Calvin was very respectful, very soft-spoken," said Salas, who learned about her cousin's death Sunday. "We're just going through a lot of emotion right now."
His mother, Rosario Evangelista Pereda, moved the boys to the Fayetteville area in 2000, when Calvin Pereda was about 10 years old, Salas said. She was a single mother and wanted to start a better life for her boys, she said.
Calvin Pereda and his family lived here for several years, and he attended South View High School in Hope Mills.
Salas said Pereda wanted a change when he was a senior, so he left the school to live with his brother, Clifford Pereda, in Oklahoma. He graduated from Lawton High School before returning to North Carolina, Salas said.
He then followed in the footsteps of his mother and two older brothers, joining the Army in March 2010, she said. He was stationed at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, Alaska, before deploying to Afghanistan in April.
Pereda was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
Pereda's body was returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday. His mother and oldest brother were there to receive him, Salas said.
His body will remain in Delaware for about a week while an autopsy is conducted. He will then be returned to his homeland, to be buried with the rest of his family, she said.
Salas said Calvin Pereda's grandmother died in April and he missed her funeral because he had just gotten deployed. He was planning to come home for the anniversary of her death next spring, she said.
"It's really hard for our family right now," Salas said. "We had just gotten over her death. She died at the age of 90, and we knew her time was coming.
"But Calvin's death, that one really creeped up on us. "We weren't prepared for that," she said. "I know that joining the Army, yes there's a risk, but when you think deployment, you don't want to think that death follows. You always think the positive."
Robert Lizama, the mayor of Yigo, Guam - Pereda's birthplace - said the death is the 41st for the Mariana Islands since the U.S. began the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the third from Yigo, a village of about 20,000 in northern Guam.
"We honor our fallen soldiers by placing black ribbons with bows on the power poles along Marine Corps Drive to recognize that we honor him for the ultimate sacrifice that he made while serving in the war zone," said Lizama, who is also Pereda's uncle. "We want to pay homage, of course, to one of our sons of Guam.
