Soldier's love of books touched others

[Judi Lynn]

Source: LA Times

Soldier's love of books touched others



U.S. Army
Army Spec. Armando De La Paz Jr. had an interest in literature. A high
school reading program could be named in his honor.

Wally Longshore, 81, never knew Army Spec. Armando De La Paz Jr., who died in Baghdad, but he plans to honor the young man with a high school reading program in De La Paz's name.
By Nathan Olivarez-Giles
March 8, 2009

~snip~
De La Paz died Nov. 13, 2008, in Baghdad; the circumstances of his death are still under investigation. He was on his second deployment to Iraq, having served there from December 2005 to October 2006 and returning in December 2007, the Department of Defense said.

Longshore learned of the Riverside soldier's death through a newspaper article.

"I never met him or had any contact with him, but the story moved me deeply," Longshore said recently. "I felt I knew him because I'm an avid reader and he too, such a young man, he was an avid reader. I felt like I'd found a kindred spirit."

The article, which ran in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, motivated Longshore to call Scott Godwin, one of De La Paz's teachers at Arlington High School. Longshore and Godwin spoke about Longshore's idea to honor the young man with a high school reading program founded in De La Paz's name.

Godwin said the idea would be a fitting tribute to De La Paz, who grew up in Riverside, because the two would visit after class to talk about literature.

"He'd come to me and say, 'I need something a bit more challenging,' " Godwin said. "So I'd give him serious books, deep books. And he would just eat these big books up."


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-delapaz8-2009mar08,0,1582196.story?track=rss

[Nay]

1. God. Another intelligent young person dead for no reason at all.

Somebody, please stop these idiotic wars!

[Botany]

2. What a waste of life but it shows America has some fine people

I wish the project well.

[acmavm]

3. So young, so sad. And all for what? But what a wonderful thing to see

this poor boy honored for something as constructive and nurturing and nourishing for the mind. He actually was a reader, he knew the power and the value of the written word.

And now he's gone. For nothing.

Sad.