A mother's sorrow - Funeral is Tuesday for soldier killed in Iraq

VICTORVILLE -- Sgt. 1st Class Rudy Salcido married his sweetheart in July, three days before going back to training for his deployment to Iraq.

That was the last time they saw each other.

"It was really important that he marry her just in case something happened," said his mother, Victorville resident Maybelle Luevano.

Salcido, 31, w a s k i l l e d earlier this month when a bomb exploded underneath his c o nvoy i n Iraq.

His mother talked to him on the phone a few days before, and it almost seemed like he had a premonition.

"He kept telling me, 'I can't believe I miss her so much,' " said Luevano, who is getting ready to attend the funeral Tuesday in Riverside with her son's wife, Jennifer, and the entire family. "He said, 'I love her so much, mom. I didn't miss her like this before, I miss her more now. It's different.' "

Her son added that of course "I miss you guys too."

The other sweetheart in Salcido's life is his 14-yearold daughter, Gabriella. Cradling a beagle-bassett hound puppy named "Rudy" after her father, Gabriella was in Victorville with her mother, Doreen Helsley, Salcido's exgirlfriend. The two moved to Colorado last year.

Gabriella was born when the two of them were only 17, but her parents always got along since then, said Helsley with tears in her eyes.

"I can't even find the words," she said. "He was a good man. He loved his daughter. He was always involved, even when he wasn't there."

Salcido used to love to ride the Sky Screamer with his daughter, asking the operator to stop the ride after one rotation if his daughter didn't like it.

From Kuwait, he brought Gabriella a necklace with her name in Arabic on one side and English on the other.

"He was a great dad, he loved her more than anything," Helsley said.

Salcido joined the U.S. Army in 2000, serving two tours in Kuwait as an ammunition specialist. After his release this spring, he volunteered for the California Air National Guard to go to Iraq, and he was reactivated in the Army as a heavy vehicle truck driver.

"He felt like he wasn't doing enough, he had to go back," Luevano said.

Growing up in La Puente and Ontario, Salcido used to play with his army toys in the backyard and blow them up with firecrackers.

His favorite holiday was the Fourth of July, his mother said.

"We could never miss a fireworks display," she said.

Anyone who knew him knew that he loved to play Texas Hold 'Em, but the things that were most important to him were God, family, his country, honor and commitment, his mother said.

Salcido is survived by his wife, Jennifer, daughter, Gabriella; mother, Maybelle and stepfather Anthony Luevano; father, Peter, and stepmother, Kathy Salcido; brothers Joey Luevano, Peter and Erik Salcido and sisters Monica, Angelique and Crysania; and nieces, Hailey, Daisy and Ivy, as well as his grandmother, Florence Mc-Cleary, and mother-in-law, Lisa Bleecker.