Sunday, April 27, 2008

RIP and my heartfelt thanks, Spc. Joshua A. Molina

Paula Fredrickson was sleeping on the living room couch when her younger brother woke her up to say goodbye. The 20-year-old soldier was on his way back to Iraq at the end of a three-week visit to Houston in January.

"I was going to get up and give him a hug and he said, 'No, just stay there. I'll see you again,'" remembered Fredrickson, 27. "I told him, 'Don't be a hero. Just do what you have to do and come back safe.'"

That was the last time she saw him alive.

Her brother, Spc. Joshua A. Molina, died in Baghdad on Thursday from injuries he suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. Molina was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany. His tour of duty in Iraq was scheduled to end in November.

Born and raised in the Houston area, Molina joined the Army Jr. ROTC at Bellaire High School. When the family moved to Alief, Molina transferred to Elsik High School. He enlisted after graduating in 2005.

He wanted to be a soldier since he was a little kid, said his younger brother Manuel Molina. "He just liked to play war."

Molina never planned to spend his career in the Army. He wanted to enroll in college in 2009. Some day, he told his family, he would like to work as a Border Patrol or FBI agent.

"He was a good kid and doing what he wanted to do," Fredrickson said. "At least he accomplished one of his dreams. And he paid the ultimate price."

Molina deployed to Iraq for the first time last summer. Before he shipped out, he visited his family in Houston in June.

"He disappeared for two hours the day he had to leave. When he finally came home he was crying and he said, 'I don't want to go,'" Fredrickson recalled. "He was just scared because he didn't know what he was getting into."

Molina's brother-in-law Rope Fredrickson, a Marine, told the young soldier not to worry. Everyone's afraid the first time they ship out to a combat zone, he said.

The family kept in touch through e-mails and phone calls.

"He only told me the good things. He never wanted to tell me the bad things," Manuel Molina said. "He told me, 'I'm just doing my job and patrolling the street.'"

The brothers last spoke on the telephone Monday. "He wished me a happy birthday and I just told him that I love him and I'll be praying for him," said Manuel Molina, who turned 20 on Tuesday.

"We were all so proud of him and even though we didn't like him being over there, we were still proud because he was giving us the freedom that we have in this country," he said.

It was midnight on Thursday when the doorbell rang at the Molina family's southwest Houston house.

"I saw the two soldiers standing there and all I could say was 'no,'" Fredrickson said. "I wanted to tell them they had the wrong house, but I couldn't get the words to come out of my mouth."

In addition to his younger brother and older sister, the soldier also leaves behind parents Maria and Josue Molina and an older brother, Henryk Baldizon, 34.

Still in shock, Fredrickson says she won't really believe her brother is gone until she sees his body.

Both sports nuts, the siblings played pickup basketball at their neighborhood park and watched football games together, sometimes betting on them for fun.

"He lost a lot of money on the Super Bowl," Fredrickson said, laughing. "Me and him were really close. I didn't just lose a brother, I lost a really good friend."

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