SAN MATEO COUNTY TIMES, PAGE 1, March 18, 2006
http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3615741
Article Last Updated: 03/18/2006 2:39 AM PST
San Bruno soldier dies in Iraq mortar attack
By Todd R. Brown, STAFF WRITER
SAN BRUNO - The family of Army Pfc. Angelo A. Zawaydeh, 19,
gathered Friday to mourn his death -- San Mateo County's second
loss in the three-year-old Iraq war.
"We were definitely against it," Angelo's father, Akram, said
of his son's decision to enlist. "He made up his mind, and
that was it."
The Defense Department announced Friday that Angelo was
stationed at a Baghdad traffic control point that came under
mortar attack. His sister Francesca, 17, said her brother was
struck and killed by a mortar shell that was embedded in his
body but did not detonate.
"He sacrificed himself for his fellow soldiers," said
Francesca, dressed in black and wearing her brother's dog tags
around her neck. "He was supposed to be the most protected one
in the tank, and he was the only one who died."
Francesca, a graduate of South San Francisco High School, is
entering University of California, Santa Cruz. Akram Zawaydeh
said his son was planning to teach her to drive and to show
her around the Santa Cruz campus when he returned home later
this spring.
Angelo's relatives assembled at the Zawaydeh home near Skyline
Boulevard to commiserate over tea and confections, which they
also offered to a number of reporters there. A shrine with
lighted candles, including a devotional candle with an image
of Jesus, stood below a photograph of Angelo in a tuxedo,
inset with an image of him in his combat fatigues.
"His whole life, he wanted to be in the Army, protect his
country, protect his democracy," Francesca said. "I loved
him."
She said he will receive posthumously the Purple Heart and
Bronze Star medals.
Akram Zawaydeh, 42, said he was in Sacramento on business when
he received a call shortly after 6 a.m. Thursday from home
telling him that Angelo had been killed. Zawaydeh said Angelo
graduated in 2004 from Terra Nova High School and had planned
to go to college after completing his four-year stint in the
Army. After that, he had hoped to become a police officer.
Angelo had been in Iraq for four months and was due for a
visit home in May, Zawaydeh said, adding that he was to return
to Iraq for another six months, after which he would finish his
service back in the United States.
"We tried our best for him not to go," he said. "His exact
words were, 'I'm going to defend what I believe in.'" But
Zawaydeh said his son came to change his mind while in Iraq,
telling him, "We shouldn't be here."
Diana Bader, 18, a first cousin of Angelo from South San
Francisco, said the Army considers Angelo's death heroic
because the shell that struck him did not explode.
"He saved everyone else's life," she said. "It's what he
wanted to do."
Akram Zawaydeh, however, seemed to take little comfort in his
son's sacrifice.
"We just don't believe in wars," he said, looking down at a
set of worry beads he massaged in his hands. "We have one man
who defied the whole world to go to war. I hope my son's blood
was not shed for the benefit of a few."
Angelo was assigned to the Army's 2nd Battalion, 502nd
Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault),
based in Fort Campbell, Ky. He is the second San Mateo County
resident to be killed in Iraq since the start of Operation
Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Foster City resident and U.S. Marine
Lance Cpl. Andrew S. Dang, 20, was killed by hostile fire on
March 22, 2004.
Angelo's mother declined to speak with reporters. Angelo is
survived by another younger sister, Nicole, 14, a student at
South San Francisco High School, and a younger brother,
Dominic, 11, who attends Westborough Middle School.
Funeral arrangements for Angelo Zawaydeh are pending.
Staff writer Todd R. Brown can be reached at (650) 348-4473 or
tbrown@sanmateocountytimes.com.
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