A Local Soldier's death reported in paper.

[Ilsa]

GANADO - "Oh, dear Lord, don't let that be my son," prayed Barbara Arriaga Falcon as she watched television news coverage of three soldiers who were killed Thursday in an ambush near Tikrit, Iraq.

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Eastlick said Arriaga did not have to be there, that he had a computer job.

"He could have stayed behind that computer, but that wouldn't be Richard," she said. "He was a ray of sunshine. When Richard came down, you would have thought we'd won the lottery. He made everybody laugh. He was just an awesome young man. He never met a stranger and never knew an enemy."

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"(Friday), we were having a good day, then someone came in and said Richard was killed in action. I was shocked. I couldn't do anything. We send the boys off to war and some get killed. We don't pay much attention, it doesn't sink in. Then it hits home and ... it's so hard."
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The sister reported that when the military men showed up at her sister's (Arriaga's mother's) home, she told them to "get away, you've got the wrong house".

http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/front/story/1366493p-1610286c.html