Army Sgt. 1st Class Luis E. Gutierrez-Rosales

Died July 18, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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38, of Bakersfield, Calif.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany; died July 18 in Adhamiyah, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked by enemy forces using an improvised explosive device and small-arms fire. Also killed were Spc. Zachary R. Clouser, Spc. Richard Gilmore III and Spc. Daniel E. Gomez.

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Bakersfield soldier killed in Iraq

The Associated Press

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A Bakersfield Army sergeant killed in Iraq when his vehicle was attacked was remembered by family as a happy, well-respected man.

Sgt. 1st Class Luis E. Gutierrez-Rosales, 38, an Army Ranger, was killed July 18 along with three other soldiers. They died in Adhamiyah, Iraq, when their vehicle was attacked by insurgents using an improvised explosive device and small-arms fire, the Defense Department said.

Gutierrez-Rosales was a platoon leader on his second tour of duty in Iraq.

He was a graduate of Bakersfield High School who served in the California Conservation Corps before joining the Army when he was 21, said his sister, Noemi Rosales.

Gutierrez-Rosales, known as “Kiki” to his family, always wanted to be a soldier. His mother, Maria Rosales, remembered him as a “happy, happy guy,” who smiled, and talked to everybody. “He would say, ‘Hi, how are you’ to anyone on the street. And I say that not because he was my son, but because it is the truth.”

He told his family not to worry about him, joking, “Oh, don’t worry, God doesn’t want the good-looking guys in heaven.”

“He was always laughing with us,” said his sister, Sandra Rosales.

Gutierrez-Rosales had an 8-year-old daughter, Amber, and planned all his R&R trips around her, said Noemi Rosales.

Gutierrez-Rosales was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, out of Schweinfurt, Germany. He was due to rotate out of Iraq in two months and had planned to marry his fiancee in Las Vegas before returning to Germany.

Maria Rosales had just come home from work July 18 when she heard the knock on the door.

“I just opened the door and the two men were there, and I knew,” she said. “But I will try to be strong, because that’s what he always wanted.”