Friends and kin
recall slain soldier

Cpl. Isaac Diaz was supposed to stay in the company's arms room in Afghanistan because he had to account for and maintain all his unit's weapons.

Isaac Diaz: The Schofield armorer died in a Humvee accident in Afghanistan

However, because the 26-year-old armorer from Rio Hondo, Texas, wanted to get "outside the wire," he became a turret gunner on a Humvee.

On Nov. 30, during a routine patrol about 1 1/2 miles south of Sharona, Diaz was killed when his Humvee rolled over.

He had been assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, since October 2001 and was scheduled to go home in four months.

Delia Diaz, his mother, told the Valley Morning Star of Harlingen, Texas, that her son was a devoted husband to his wife, Amber, and very loving to their 4-year-old son, Aaron.

"He was loving; he always wanted to be with us," she said. "We can't describe how much it hurts to not have your child anymore."

Her grandson Aaron, she said, loved to be around his father. "It was everything the little boy talked about. He loved his father so much, always wanted to be close to him, in his arms."

Diaz's mother said he initially enlisted for a three-year tour in 1998 and then re-enlisted for five years and was sent to Afghanistan in March.

Spc. John Kelly, a friend of Diaz's from Company B, told the Hawaii Army Weekly: "Isaac was a great guy to hang out with. It became a regular occurrence -- Isaac and his family were always at my house, and we always had a good time."

Kelly said his favorite memory of Diaz was when he had a few too many drinks and started singing Shania Twain's "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" on a karaoke machine.

"He must have sang that song for two hours, recording himself and making us listen to it," Kelly said. "My friend was a great guy, but he couldn't sing."

Capt. John Sego, Bravo Company commander, said Diaz was responsible for establishing the company arms room. Diaz never complained, but Sego said he could tell he was getting restless.

Someone told Sego that Diaz wanted to get "outside the wire," so Sego made Diaz his gunner.

"Over the next few months, he endured countless hours patrolling across the countryside on rough terrain in harsh weather and with the imminent threat of enemy attack," Sego said. "But his spirit never faltered, and the rest of us drew courage from him."

Spc. James Dufoe, another friend who knew Diaz since he arrived in Hawaii three years ago, told the Schofield Barracks paper that Diaz was "a good friend who was always ready to crack a joke when you were down or upset."

Dufoe said Diaz was fond of playing pranks on his friends, like dousing them with water when they weren't looking and taking all the furniture in the room and stacking it on one of their beds.

"Some of his jokes were only funny to him, but he would keep at it until he got a laugh out of us," Dufoe said.