Alton soldier killed while disarming bomb in Iraq

ALTON — A soldier from Alton died in Iraq while attempting to disarm an improvised bomb Monday.

Bradley Espinoza, 26, was on his third tour in Iraq and was serving as a bomb disposal specialist with the U.S. Army. He was to return to Texas in December, his uncle Ralph Solis said.

The Mission High School graduate’s body is currently being transported to the Rio Grande Valley and should arrive within three to four days. Espinoza is survived by his wife and two children, ages 6 and 3. The man’s wife is stationed in San Angelo, where she also serves in the Army.

Solis said two Army representatives visited the Espinoza household Tuesday morning to deliver the news. Family and friends gathered at the Espinozas’ trailer home to give each other solace Tuesday afternoon.

“I was there all morning,” said Rebecca Cantu, a friend of Maggie Espinoza, the soldier’s mother. “There are people coming from all over.”

Cantu said her friend wept uncontrollably throughout the day as she mourned the death of her son, whom she had last spoken to a few days ago. The bereaved mother got sick upon hearing the news from the government employees who came to her doorstep. Maggie Espinoza initially thought the women were lost in her neighborhood, her friend added.

“She’s devastated,” Cantu said. “She’s calm, then she cries.”

Bradley Espinoza’s 3-year-old son still seems confused about his father’s death, Cantu said. The boy had been staying with his grandmother in Alton while his parents were away on duty.

“The little boy doesn’t comprehend,” Cantu said. “At first, he was just happy a lot of kids were there. Then he saw his grandma cry, and he was like, ‘What’s wrong?’”

Relatives have not yet made funeral or vigil arrangements.

Bradley Espinoza is the first Valley soldier to die in Iraq this year. Since the Iraq war began in 2003, a total of 24 other service members from the Valley have died in that country. Overall, the United States has lost more than 4,300 service members to the war.

Prior to Bradley Espinoza’s death, the latest Valley soldier to die in Iraq was another Mission High School graduate who served as an explosives expert with the Army. Spc. Alex Gonzalez, 21, of Mission, was killed in May 2008 when insurgents fired upon his patrol vehicle, family members told The Monitor.

A member of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Engineers, he died from the injuries he sustained when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his armored personnel carrier. He was on his first deployment to Iraq.

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View Bradley Espinoza's MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/454278695

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