Fil-Am killed in Iraq Apache crash to be buried in RP

HONOLULU — The family of one of two Army Apache attack helicopter pilots killed in Iraq last Monday plans to bury the soldier in the Philippines, a country he left nearly two decades ago to pursue his dream of flying.

Chief Warrant Officer Ruel Garcia lived with grandfather Nick Garcia in Waipahu in 1987 because he wanted to be a military pilot, Nick Garcia said. Garcia now lives in Waipio.

Family friend Benny Quiseng said the younger Garcia graduated from college in Manila with a degree in electrical engineering. Once in the United States, though, he had to start all over again.

Nick Garcia said during the five or six years his grandson lived with him, he attended adult high school at Waipahu at nights to earn a US high school equivalency diploma.

With that in hand, Nick Garcia said his grandson was able to get into the Air Force in 1992, where he served for four years. After he became a naturalized citizen, he switched to the Army to attend helicopter flight school.

On Monday, Ruel Garcia, 34, was killed when his AH-64 Apache attack helicopter crashed north of Taji. It was his second combat tour in Iraq.

He and the other crewmember who was killed, also a pilot with Task Force Ironhorse, were part of the 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood in Texas. There had been reports that the chopper could have been shot down.

Garcia was one of 12 US service members and four civilians killed as the result of three separate helicopter crashes that occurred in Iraq this month.

Although there has not been official confirmation of Garcia’s death by the Pentagon, Nick Garcia said one of his daughters called from Long Beach, California telling him his first grandchild from his other daughter, who lives in the Philippines, had been killed in Iraq.

"She was crying when she called," said Nick Garcia, 80, "and I started crying, too, like a baby."

With help from Quiseng, Garcia said he used the Internet to try to get more information on how his grandson was killed.

Garcia said his grandson loved to play tennis. "When he was living in the Philippines, he wrote to me asking for a tennis racket, so I made him several and sent them to him."

Garcia said his grandson married a girl from the Philippines three months ago and bought a one-acre home in Texas.

In October the younger Garcia called his grandfather, telling him he was going back to Iraq for the second time.

"I advised him not to go out alone and be careful because there are so many roadside bombs," the elder Garcia said. "He told me, ‘Yes, Grandpa, I will be very careful.’"

Quiseng also received a call from Ruel Garcia before he left, and he was not happy about returning to Iraq.

"He told me, ‘It can’t be helped,’" Quiseng said. "‘I’m a pilot, and I am doing this for my country.’"

Garcia is also survived by his parents, Resendo and Cynthia Garcia, who live near Manila; his wife Apple, of Texas; his brother Ramisis, also in the Philippines; sister Eden; and step-grandmother Gloria.

Nick Garcia said funeral services would be held in early February in the Philippines, where his family and friends live. — Honolulu Star-Bulletin