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Text
from battlefield: We've been ambushed ... Pray for
me
Posted
04:25am (Mla time) Feb 15, 2005
By Job Belen
Inquirer News Service
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=27572
Editor's
Note: Published on page A20 of the Feb. 15, 2005 issue
of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
TABACO
CITY, Albay, Philippines -- At 9:16 a.m. on Feb. 8,
a Tuesday, Marine 1st Lieutenant Reynaldo Ricalde
called his sister Michelle and said he and his men
had been ambushed but that he had only suffered abrasions.
Minutes
later, he texted her and said: "Ipangadyi na
sana nindo ako, bantayan si Mama saka si Jet-Jet (I
hope you pray for me, take care of Mama and Jet-Jet)."
Jet-Jet,
10, is Ricalde's youngest of four siblings.
The
following day, a message came from Camp Gen. Simeon
Ola informing the Ricalde family that the 29-year-old
lieutenant had died and extending the Armed Forces
leadership's condolences.
Love
for soldiery
Ricalde
was among some 30 soldiers who have been killed in
the eight-day-old fighting on Jolo Island between
the military and Moro guerrillas.
A
1998 graduate of Bicol University
and a licensed electrical engineer, Ricalde really
wanted to become a soldier, said Michelle, 23.
"Even
though he had already passed the board exams for engineers,
he joined the Army training in Tanay, Rizal, for several
months but unfortunately he was not enlisted,"
the sister said.
Undeterred,
Ricalde got into the Navy and was assigned to the
Marines.
Military
dreams
The
eldest son of Jose and Sonia Ricalde graduated valedictorian
from the Pawa Elementary School in this city and showed
his bent for soldiery early.
He
was corps commander
of the Citizens Army Training in high school and held
the same post in college when he took up the Reserved
Officers Training Course (ROTC).
After
completing ROTC, he took an advance military course,
bent on going into military service.
Marietta
Sanchez, who was Ricalde's Grade 5 teacher, described
him as a responsible although silent schoolboy. She
particularly remembered his legible handwriting.
'Happy
birthday, sis'
Two
days before his unit came under attack on Jolo, Ricalde
made sure to get in touch with Michelle to wish her
a happy birthday.
Family
members said the AFP leadership had recommended that
Ricalde be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in
Makati City, but they preferred that his remains be
brought to the family residence here.
The
body of the young lieutenant was to be flown to Legazpi
City by military plane today.
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