PORTER RANCH, CA, U.S.A.
U.S. ARMY
PVT, 6TH SQDN, 4TH CAV REG, 3RD BCT, 1ST INF DIV, FORT HOOD, TX
08/01/2008, CHOWKAY VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN
As a boy growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Jair De Jesus Garcia was drawn to the fine arts. His mother encouraged his interests. Maria Luisa Avneri took Jair, her youngest, and her other 3 children to museums, plays, concerts and art shows. She recalls watching a 10-year-old Jair, his face beaming as he experienced his first opera, “Madame Butterfly.”
He graduated from Birmingham Senior High School in Van Nuys, he played football and ran track. He loved soccer according to his mother and dreamed of playing for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
He went to school and pursued a career, but he was always looking for something. He didn’t feel fulfilled. Nothing made him feel completed until he decided to join the Army. ” — Maria Luisa Avneri, mother.
In 2007, he told his parents he was ready to serve. “Mom, I want you to know that someone has to do it, and I want to do it.”
After basic training, he was assigned to the 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. Avneri said, it was hard to deny the positive change in her son when he came home to Porter Ranch on leave. He was in great shape, was tall and broad-shouldered, looking “so handsome in his uniform,” she said. “He told me, ‘Be proud of me.’ ”
PVT Jair De Jesus Garcia, 29, had been in Afghanistan less than two months when he was killed.
Jair Garcia’s mother said that after his death she felt so devastated she wondered if she could go on living. Then she received an email message he had written the day before he was killed. ‘I felt like he was embracing me,’ she said. ‘He told me, ‘I’m OK, I’m fine.’’
He was one of those honest “what you see is what you get” people who are too rare in this world. A real stand-up guy. What a great goalkeeper too! Kevin, a friend, August 5, 2008
PVT Garcia is survived by his mother, his wife, his son, his father, his stepfather, two brothers, and a sister.