North Carolina Army National Guard Spc. Jocelyn L. Carrasquillo

Died March 13, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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28, of Wrightsville Beach, N.C.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, Army National Guard, Wilmington, N.C.; killed March 13 when an improvised explosive device hit his vehicle on the main supply route in Iraq.

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N.C. National Guard member killed in Iraq remembered

Associated Press

GOLDSBORO, N.C. — More than 900 people descended upon a church on March 21 to remember Spc. Jocelyn “Joce” Carrasquillo, a North Carolina National Guard member killed by a bomb in Iraq.

Carrasquillo, a member of the Wilmington-based 120th Infantry Regiment, was the second soldier from the state National Guard to die in Iraq. He later was interred with military honors.

A slideshow of a young man who would have been 30 a week and a half after his funeral welcomed Carrasquillo’s fellow soldiers, friends, co-workers, and churchgoers. They filled the 890-seat First Pentecostal Holiness Church past capacity.

Carrasquillo’s mother, Isabel Salgado Carrasquillo, kissed her son before the casket closed.

Carrasquillo’s friend, Kenny Wilson, said he hoped the standing-room-only gathering would bring comfort to Carrasquillo’s parents and three brothers.

“These people are all here because Joce really touched people,” Wilson said. “You meet him once, and you never forget him.”

Mourners said that pictures revealed the best qualities of the young soldier, who had lived in Wrightsville Beach and was studying to be a massage therapist in his ongoing quest to help people.

“He was always smiling. Always,” Wilson said.