Hawaiian soldier killed in Iraq had been considering religious life

HONOLULU (CNS) -- Family and friends said a U.S. soldier from Hawaii who was killed in Iraq on Christmas Eve felt honored to serve her country but that she also was contemplating a different kind of service -- religious life.

Sister Susan John Kraus, a Daughter of St. Paul, said Sgt. Myla Maravillosa was thinking of joining her order. She said it was clear from her e-mails that Maravillosa "was growing in her spiritual life" and that "her relationship with the Lord had really deepened."

In one of those messages, written just before she went to Iraq, the soldier admitted to being "scared a little bit." However, "God has been inviting me to remain in him," Maravillosa wrote. "If I remain in him, he will see me through and carry me home."

Maravillosa, 24, was an interrogator for the U.S. Army Reserve's 301st Military Intelligence Battalion based at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. She had only been in Iraq since Nov. 20 and was the second female U.S. soldier to be killed there.

Dozens of military personnel gathered at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu Dec. 31 for a memorial service honoring her. Also attending were friends and relatives, a U.S. congressman and members of the Daughters of St. Paul.

Maravillosa died from injuries she sustained when the Humvee in which she was riding was struck from behind by a rocket-propelled grenade. She was in the back seat of her vehicle, the last one in a convoy of five on a routine patrol.

Those who knew her said Maravillosa did not intend to make the military her career.

"She met the sisters at the cathedral at Mass and she just felt right away the attraction for religious life," said Sister Susan, one of the sisters who operate the downtown Pauline Book and Media Center. "She would come to visit us and volunteer at least a couple of times a week.

"She joined the military for the opportunities that the reserve offered initially," she added. "Things weren't always easy for her. But she stuck with it."

Maravillosa came to Hawaii in 1997 from the Philippines. She joined the Army Reserve after graduating from Leilehua High School in 1998. For a time she attended Leeward Community College.

"She felt very honored to serve her new country," said her mother, Estelita Maravillosa of Waipahu, in a phone interview with the Hawaii Catholic Herald, Honolulu diocesan newspaper. Maravillosa was able to spend three days at home with her mother before being deployed to Iraq.

"She was a very loving, understanding, polite and obedient person," she said. "She was a very respectful daughter."

The Dec. 31 cathedral service was a somber hour of testimony and remembrances in words, pictures and music. The Rev. Gary Dale, a Protestant chaplain and Army major, offered the opening prayer.

"She touched so many in so many different ways," Rev. Dale said. "She sacrificed her own (freedom) so that the Iraqi people could be free."

Brig. Gen. Gregory Schumacher, commander of the Military Intelligence Readiness Command, flew in from Washington to speak.

"She approached everything she did with a positive spirit," he said. "She was a servant of God, her country, her fellow man."

He described Maravillosa as "a young woman who cared for the downtrodden," adding that she "left joy in the hearts of all those she came in contact with."

Chief Warrant Officer Inocencio Cacho, one of the Hawaiian soldiers of Filipino ancestry who encouraged her during her military training, elaborated on Maravillosa's sacrifice.

"It was not easy for Myla," he said. "She was a petite Filipino woman. We all wanted her to succeed.

"We are a family and we have lost a family member," he added. "She brings great honor to all Filipino women, and to all Filipinos."

Sister Susan said that, despite what people thought, God was not preparing Maravillosa to be a sister, or a soldier, or anything more than the person everyone already knew.

The memorial service was followed by a memorial Mass at noon celebrated by the cathedral rector, Father John Berger. In his homily, Father Berger spoke about the Gospel reading recounting the rising of Lazarus.

"Jesus had authority to even turn death upside down," he said. When it comes to death, the priest said, "God has the last word."

Maravillosa's mother said she planned to bury her daughter near her maternal grandfather in Bohol province in the Philippines.

This is an older story but I don't think it has been posted on Free Republic yet and it's a story that should be told. There is more about her including a picture here:

http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/01/17/slain-soldier-and-daughters-of-st-paul

God bless all our fighting men and women in harm's way. Sgt. Myla Maravillosa pray for us.

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