Spec. Juan M. Torres plowed through life with a determination to get as much done as possible.
“He achieved more in his 25 years than anybody I knew at age 90,” said his sister, Veronica Santiago.
As a reservist with the 453rd Transportation Company, which he joined in 1996 to help pay for college, he squeezed in work on a business degree at the University of Houston. In 2002 he made the dean’s list and that December completed a bachelor’s degree of business administration in accounting and finance.
Torres also served for seven months in Bosnia with the 441st Cargo Transportation Company in 1998.
Back in Houston, he was an accountant with Devon Energy Corp.
Born in Cordoba, Argentina, he became known as John when the family moved to Houston in 1980. Torres, died of non-combat related injuries July 12 in Bagram, Afghanistan.
Santiago said her brother never worried about things and always looked to tomorrow as a promising day.
“If something was going wrong in my life I would tell him about it, and he would say don’t worry about it, that it was going to work out and it did,” his sister said. “He was very spiritual. He had such a positive attitude.”
Before he died he was looking for engagement rings and was about to ask his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Wise, to marry him.
“The other soldiers told her, but we all knew,” his sister said
Gave it his all: Cpl. Rudy Salas, of Baldwin Park, Calif., joined the Marines after graduating in 2001 from Baldwin Park High School, where the varsity football player was admired for giving it his all on the field.
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“He wasn’t the most talented football player, but he certainly was one of the most hardworking. His character was outstanding,” said Mike Zimmerman, the school’s athletic director. “He always gave his best to try to improve and try to help the team. He was the kind of person who would lead by example; he’d display his efforts on the field and others would be willing to follow.”
Salas, 20, died May 20 of injuries suffered in a non-combat-related vehicle accident in Iraq’s Al Anbar province, the Defense Department stated. He was assigned to the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Salas decided to become a Marine during his senior year of high school.
“To us he’s a hero,” Zimmerman said.