CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Sgt. Alexis Gagalac mourned the loss of his twin brother, Army Sgt. Alexander Gagalac, shown at top, during burial services yesterday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. Gagalac was killed Sept. 9 in Iraq.

‘Always Loved & In Our Hearts’

A Punchbowl ceremony honors a fallen soldier

Army Sgt. Alexander Gagalac was looking forward to coming home from the war in Iraq.

The 25th Infantry Division soldier was laid to rest yesterday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

Gagalac, 28, was killed Sept. 9 -- just a few weeks before he was to return home. He died in Al Hawijah, Iraq, from injuries sustained from a rocket-propelled grenade while on a combat patrol.

At the cemetery, Gagalac's headstone replaced that of a Marine private first class who was recently identified by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and will be reburied at Arlington National Cemetery.

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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Mourners attended burial services for Sgt. Alexander Gagalac yesterday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. Gagalac, of the 25th Infantry Division, died Sept. 9 in Al Hawijah, Iraq. Among the mourners was his twin brother, Sgt. Alexis Gagalac, front center, holding an encased American flag.

Army Sgt. Alexander Gagalac was laid to rest yesterday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl with his twin brother, National Guard Sgt. Alexis Gagalac, giving him a final salute.

His mother cried out, "My son Alexander, goodbye. ... My son Alexander, I love you so much."

The headstone says:

"Sgt. Alexander Gagalac. March 21, 1979. Sept. 9, 2007.

"Always Loved & In Our Hearts."

Gagalac, 28, was killed Sept. 9, just weeks before he was to return home. He died in Al Hawijah, Iraq, from injuries sustained from a rocket-propelled grenade while on a combat patrol.

Gagalac, a Leilehua High School graduate, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division.

Most of Gagalac's unit is expected to begin returning from Iraq next week after spending nearly 15 months there.

Since it was deployed to Iraq in 2006, the 25th Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team has lost 36 soldiers.

During yesterday's funeral Mass held at Mililani's St. John Apostle and Evangelist Church, the Rev. Manuel Hewe recalled Gagalac's last entry on his MySpace blog: "For the past 13 months I have been living in a place that time forgot 'Iraq.' Now it is finally coming to an end with a few weeks to go. I can't wait to be back home with family and friends. This has been a long time coming and it's gonna feel a lot longer as it comes to those last hours that I'm here. The taste of freedom is going to be sweet."

Hewe said the young soldier "died with courage and with hope in his heart to be with his friends and family one day."

At Punchbowl, Brig. Gen. John Ma, deputy commander for mobilization and Reserve affairs at U.S. Army Pacific, presented the American flag to Gagalac's mother, Regina, and a display case with his medals to his father, Fabian. Gagalac was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals yesterday.

Before Gagalac was buried on a gentle slope, he was honored with a 21-gun salute and the playing of taps.

Gene Castagnetti, Punchbowl cemetery director, said "it was just a matter of timing" that allowed Gagalac to have a burial plot. That is because all of Punchbowl's 33,400 burial plots are occupied.

However, 2,920 of those plots hold the remains of military personnel killed in World War II and the Korean War whose identities are not known.

The plot had been occupied by the remains of a soldier repatriated from Korea in 1954.

On Sept. 3 the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, after studying and re-examining the skeletal and dental remains exhumed from the grave site in May 2006, said they belonged to Pfc. Carl West, who died in North Korea near the Chosin Reservoir in 1950.

Castagnetti said once West's family accepted the military's latest findings and released the grave site, Punchbowl officials were free to make it available to eligible veterans or their dependents. West's body will be reburied at Arlington National Cemetery.