Ruben Estrella-Soto
Rank/Branch: Pvt./Army
Unit: 507th Maintenance Co., Fort Bliss, Texas
Age: 18
Date of Birth
Home City of Record: El Paso, Texas.
Date of Loss: March 23, 2003
Remains recovered and identified - Reported April 04, 2003
Country of Loss: Iraq
Loss Coordinates: Nasiriyah
Status: MIA
Category:
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Convoy
Other Personnel in Incident: Army Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, 35, El Paso, Texas, Army Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, 38, Cleveland, Army Sgt. James Riley, 31, Pennsauken; N.J., Army Sgt. Donald Walters, 33, Salem, Ore., Army Spc. James Kiehl, 22, Comfort, Texas, Army Pvt. Brandon Sloan, 19, Bedford Heights, Ohio, Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa, 22, Tuba City, Ariz., Army Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, Mission, Texas, Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, Alamogordo, N.M., Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, 30, Fort Bliss, Texas, Army Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, Park City, Kan,, Army Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto, 18, El Paso, Texas.
Source: Compiled by Last Firebase Veterans Archives Project from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
Date Updated: March 30, 2003

REMARKS:
18-year-old among missing
Friends, family call Mountain View High grad a 'hero'
Maria Cortés Gonzalez
El Paso Times
Family and friends of Ruben Estrella-Soto, an 18-year-old soldier from Fort Bliss who is missing after an ambush in southern Iraq, are anxiously awaiting news that he will come home after the war.
Estrella-Soto, a private in the 507th Maintenance Company, was listed Wednesday by the Department of Defense as missing in action.
He's among 15 members of his unit believed to be dead, captured or missing after the ambush Sunday near the city of An Nasiriyah.
"I saw the news on Sunday, and friends started calling me," his father, Ruben Estrella Sr., said. "But I wasn't sure."
Hours later, Army officials walked up to the Estrellas' mobile home on El Paso's far East Side to confirm the news.
"It was very sad, but we thought we were going to get worse news, that this was the end," he said. "So we're hopeful that they will find my son alive."
Estrella said he initially did not know his son was part of the 507th Maintenance Company
. "But then I saw that his friend Edgar (Hernandez) was a prisoner of war," he said.
Hernandez, of Alton, Texas, is among the five soldiers who have been shown on Iraqi TV.
Estrella rushed to the car Hernandez had left on his property and confirmed his fears.
"I found a paper with 507 on it and the names of other soldiers," he said.
Estrella said his son, the oldest of three children, has been in the Army for seven months after his graduation from Mountain View High School.
"He had a lot of desire to do something with his life, and he wanted to go into the military so he could get an education," he said. "He wanted to study engineering."
Estrella, who runs a body shop, said he didn't want his son to join the service.
"I knew it was a difficult life," he said, "so I didn't sign his papers. I think my wife did."
Estrella described his son as a typical youth.
"He played football in high school and wanted to just finish his service and come home," he said.
Estrella said goodbye to his son and Hernandez when they were deployed.
"He befriended Edgar in the service, and they left from here. He just talked about coming back and his plans to go to school," he said.
Estrella said his wife, Amalia, is having a difficult time dealing with their son's disappearance. But they have the support of family and friends.
Mountain View officials wouldn't talk Wednesday morning about Estrella-Soto, honoring his mother's wishes. But they said students were decorating a billboard in his honor.
Martin Gonzalez, a 19-year-old senior, said the community is close-knit, so word of Estrella-Soto's status quickly spread through the school.
"Everybody's talking about it," he said.
Gonzalez said he remembers Estrella-Soto from catechism classes at San Diego Catholic Church.
"He's a typical teenager who likes partying. He liked to make people laugh," he said.
Joseph Parra, 18, said he is friends with Estrella-Soto's brother, Edgar, 17, who's upset about the news.
"He's sad. ... He doesn't know if he's captured or being tortured," Parra said.
Gonzalez and Parra said it's almost overwhelming to think someone they know could be hurt.
"It's very scary to know that of (the thousands of soldiers), there is someone you know that you might never see again," Gonzalez said.
Parra added that they respect their former schoolmate.
"He is a hero," he said.

U.S. Veteran Dispatch
www.usvetdsp.com/main.shtml