Fallen Dragon

I have some sad news to report.

L.B. soldier fatally injured in Iraq

Pfc. Stephen Castellano dies Friday, 4 days before his 21st birthday.
By Tracy Manzer Staff writer

LONG BEACH — Tuesday should have been a day of celebration for a Long Beach soldier fighting in Iraq.

Instead, the family of Pfc. Stephen Anthony Castellano had to take on the grim task of preparing for the young man's funeral after he became one of the latest casualties of the war Friday, just four days shy of his 21st birthday.

Castellano was killed in Mosul by a noncombat-related injury, according to the Army. The military would not release any specifics about Castellano's death Tuesday, and his mother, Susan Moncure, said that she had only been told her son had suffered a fatal gunshot wound.

It was on Friday that Moncure learned of her son's death, and since then she and her family have been struggling to cope with the devastating loss.

"I had a lot of tears Friday," she said Tuesday. "I've had a lot of tears today and every day in between."

The last time the young soldier's family saw him was on Thanksgiving, when he was home for a two-week leave. Castellano enlisted in the Army on Feb. 11, 2003, according to Army headquarters, and was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) based at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.

Now, Moncure is trying to put aside as much of her grief as she can in order to plan for her son's funeral service. Castellano's brother has written a eulogy for the hometown hero, and several other family members and friends will likely speak at the service, scheduled for Friday at Faith Presbyterian Church, 500 E. San Antonio Drive, in Long Beach.

The service will be followed by a burial at All Souls Cemetery, 4400 Cherry Ave., in Long Beach. Times for the services were still pending Tuesday, said Susan Robinson, a spokeswoman for All Souls Mortuary and Cemetery.

Castellano's death brought the number of U.S. military fatalities to 1,434 Tuesday, according to an, Associated Press count. Since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, at least 1,096 have died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department stated.

The Associated Press count includes four military civilians and is three higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Tuesday morning.

Castellano is the fourth member of the armed forces from Long Beach killed since the start of the war.

Army Spc. Edgar P. Daclan Jr. was killed Sept. 10, 2003, when a hidden explosive device detonated hear his unit in the central Iraqi city of Balad, north of Baghdad. Army Pfc. Lyndon Ason Marcus Jr. died in a May 3, 2003, car accident in Balad, and Marine Pfc. George Torres was killed April 11, 2003, in a gunfight west of Baghdad.

Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,296 U.S. military members have died, according to the AP. That includes at least 987 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

Anyone with questions about Castellano's services can all All Souls at (562) 424-8601. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

I am so sorry for the loss suffered by Pfc. Castellano's family and friends.

He will be remembered for the hero that he was.

Comments

[Linda Clifford]

I would like to offer my prayers and condolences to Pfc. Castellano's family. God bless them for the sacrifice they have made. I am also praying for his unit buddies who will miss him too. As a member of the Golden Dragons he served bravely and we all owe him our gratitude. God bless him. May he rest in peace.

[Mendez]

God Bless PFC. Castellano.

[Heather]

I would like to express my deepest condolences and prayers to Pfc. Castellano's family and friends. God Bless Stephen!

[Ron Hughes]

Stephen Anthony Castellano was the finest man I never met. I only know of him through my son, who all to briefly, served with him. At his request, I was encouraged to write Steve. I am ever so glad I did. Here was a man that my son considered not an equal, but a friend that he looked up to as a role model. Comming from my son, that is rare indeed.
We had planed to get together when he came home, to finaly meet face to face, and share a meal, a drink and some fun conversation... It breaks my heart that it is not to be.
Steve reached a milestone Jan. 28th, 2005. He gave the ultimate to his fellow man to free a nation. I reached a milestne that day too. It was my 50th birthday. God must have known I'd need a warrior angel to watch over my son and me. I'll never celebrate another birthday without thinking of him on that day, and all year long. Your name and memory will be spoken and remembered with honor and dignity in my home. Thank you Steve for your service. A grateful nation will not forget your sacrifice. I weep and pray for your family!
Go With God,
Ron Hughes
Proud Parent Of A U.S. Army Soldier!

[Spc. Dan Grace]

Stephen was a great soldier, but even yet a better friend. I will NEVER forget you. May God help his family and friends through this!

Love,
Dan

[Stephen Carrubba]

I am touched by your kind thoughts and comments about Stephen. May God bless you and yours.

Stephen Carrubba, Grandfather

[ANTHONY J. CASTELLANO]

It warms my heart with all the support for our family in these tring times,may God bless each and every one of you.

[Carla Miranda]

Stephen A. Castellano was a great man that I love very much. He lived life to the fullest and now he is watching us from above. I sit in gradtitude everyday for be able to meet such a special person who cared so deeply for the ones he loved. I love you Stephen. Till we meet again...

[Anthony Iozzia]

Stephen is now a Soldier of Peace. May we all, one day, be priviledged to join Stephen in Eternal Happiness. May he enjoy the Comfort and Refreshment of God.

[Paul Castellano]

I can't being to express the profound emotions I've felt during this past week. I have, for years, heard and read the phrase, "Unconsolable grief." I now understand what that phrase means. Parents shouldn't have to bury their children. Steven was my hero. The nation may honor him, friends may be proud of him, but he was my hero.

He had such a difficult childhood, yet became such a wonderfully strong man. I know he will not be coming home in the next rotation, yet I still can't believe he is gone.

He was bright, even though he didn't think he was; he was tough, loyal, fiercely independent, and very loving. He was not perfect, but for the life of me I can't remember a single one of his faults. He is a part me (and his mother and brother)and though not here, he will never be gone.

He was doing what he wanted to do where he wanted to do it. He was protecting people. He was offering those who had had no freedom, freedom to perform one of the simplest acts - the right to vote. So the next time you complain about our voting system in America; or you say it doesn't matter whether you vote or not; think about my son, Steven, high above an election station, looking down over the people going in to vote and realize, it was for that very reason he gave his life. I will miss him more than I can ever express.

[Shana Galloway]

I would like to send my sincerest condolences to Susan
Moncure and her family. Susan, I have fond recollections
of your time in my English class at LBCC, and I recall
how lovingly you spoke of your sons. Though Stephen
is no longer present in a physical sense, his spirit
remains, and I, like many others, am thankful for his bravery and selflessness. You raised a wonderful young
man.

[Anonymous]

Steven Anthony Castellano was a lot of things. Friend, brother, son, lover. But most of all, above anything, he was a fighter. I'm not talking about a Mike Tyson punk ass type fighter. He was a warrior. A fighter of the old school. Honor above victory, courage above cowardice. Stephen didn't believe in these things. They ran thorugh his blood. I looked up the meaning of the word warrior and I can't think of a better definition for the type of person he was.
Warrior-A man engaged or experienced in war, or in the military life; a soldier; a CHAMPION.
That was Steve. Damn the odds. Do or die was the motto for his life. When adversity came his way, he didn't run away, he leaned into it.
Now don't misunderstand me. Because he was a fighter thorugh and through does not mean he didn't love. Quite the contrary, he loved with a fervor that most men can only dream of. He had passion and tenacity in everything he did. So much so that most people were overpowered by it.
You see, that's what a true fighter is. A man does what he feels is right all the time. A thermostat, not a thermometer. He did what he felt what right no matter how many people wer against him, and most of the time there were a lot of people against him.
That's all I have to say for now.

[worried friend]

does any one know j.thompson in charlie co? if so is he okay? have not heard from him. thank you. m.m.

[worried friend]

i put the wrong e-mail addy on the first one, if any one knows thompson, i just want to know that hes ok. GREATLY appreciated!! smiles to all. thanks again to all!!

[sorry]

MY DEEPEST APPOLOGIES FOR ACCEDNTLY POSTING MY MEESSAGE ON THE WRONG CATEGORY. I WAS MISTAKEN AND DIDNT REALIZE SOME PEOPLE WOULD TAKE OFFENSE TO IT.

[Fratello]

My name is Tim Castellano. Steve is my brother. I had the joy of burying him a few days after his 21. This is my Eulogy that I wrote for him. Enjoy it. I know I had a blast writing it.

Steve was a good friend and a great brother. He had a loyalty to those he loved that is immeasurable. Steve lived his life with intensity and passion. He gave everything to everybody all the time. If there was something on his mind at 2:00 in the morning that he wanted you to know, nothing would stop him from telling you. I remember one time when I was a junior in high school, Steve came home at 3:00 A.M. on a Saturday night and he shook me awake. Tim, Tim, wake up I gotta ask you something it’s really important. What is it, Steve? Who sings crawling in my skin? You woke me up at 3 in the freaking morning for a Linkin Park song? But that’s the kind of guy he was. He didn’t do it out of malice or spite, or even selfishness; he just couldn’t wait to share his feelings. Let me tell you something about Steve that might give you a better understanding as to why he did some of the things he did. Steve never slept. He didn’t need to. One to two hours in a night were all he needed to get him through the day. He used to get up (not wake up, but get up) at 6 in the morning and walk 7 miles everyday, and then play basketball for thirteen hours. He couldn’t fathom why people would get aggravated or cranky at 2 in the morning when he’d been up all week and was fine. Steve loved in a way that regular people can’t fathom. He always fired on all 12 cylinders in everything he did. If my brother was a sports car, he would have been a Ferrari that was always red lining. He never gave up. Ever! His tenacity was awe-inspiring. Whenever he took something on he poured so much of himself into his task that you would’ve thought he was building the Taj Mahal. But God help you if you ever got in his way. The man was a machine. But don’t ever think that because the man had passion or could blow his top from time to time that he didn’t love. He loved with a heart bigger than most. He and I fought more times then I can remember, but I always knew that he would have moved heaven and earth if I needed him. No matter what we got into, he never ever said an unkind word about me to others. I know that might not mean much to some of you, but it sure meant a heck of a lot to me. His love and loyalty surpassed petty squabbles and misunderstandings. It flowed straight from his heart and wasn’t tainted by pride or obstanence.

You may have noticed how I mentioned how my brother loved a few times already but haven’t really gone into great detail. That’s because with love, like everything else in my brothers’ life, he did it in a unique and very Stephen Anthony Castellano way. He always ran on a different frequency than the rest of us. I’m going to give you an example of one of the many ways that my brother loved. My brother stayed in a home for boys in Washington for more than a year. I went to visit him for a week in the summer. One of the other kids up there had a virtual reality game that I loved to play and I always got to play it whenever I wanted to. I didn’t find out until years later that the reason a perfect stranger was so generous to me was because my brother cleaned this guy’s room and did his portion of the house chores as well as his own. This might seem trite to you but it means the world to me. You see, that place was no picnic for my brother. He was the youngest in there at 12, while everyone else was 15-18, and they constantly jumped him. Just knowing, that my brother took on extra burden in an already crappy place to make my vacation as pleasant as possible means more to me than anything.

For those of you that have never met my brother, I truly I am sorry for you. You will never hear his laugh or see a rare smile. You will never know what it’s like to feel safe in Compton at 3 AM. You will never feel his warmth or share his pain. You will never be able to say, “I knew one of the bravest, strongest and most noble people ever to walk this Earth.” Steve’s life was a war and he was the Army, and he never stopped fighting. My brother fought with reckless abandon and never quit no matter how hard it got. And towards the end, the battles he fought weren’t on the streets of Long Beach but the deserts of Iraq, and he fought there with the same ferocity that he did here. At the end he found and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and I am confident that, for my brother, the war is over, and he is finally at peace.

Il fratello ti amo ed io mancherrano

[Sarah Moncure]

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never the same…” Stephen has left deep footprints on my heart and I miss him more than words can express. I am grateful for everyday he lived on this earth and am blessed to have had such an amazingly brave cousin. Life isn’t the same. Everything has changed & normal is no more. Although Stephen no longer occupies his earthly body, his soul is very much alive. His spirit is rejoicing in Heaven singing praises to our Lord & one day we will be together again as a family. Stephen is celebrating in Heaven with the Lord and he is smiling down on us. He is now & forever will be alive. Death did not stop Stephen. His eternal life has just begun. Stephen I love you more than words can say and miss you so much…I pray for the strength to make it through each day. The day you left this earth, you took a piece of me with you.
Until again…I love you always, Sarah

[Anonymous]

It's funny how things like this work. Some-one dies and for about a month there is a ton of sentiment and compassion and spoken and written words that are meant to comfort the heart and enrich the soul. And almost like clockwork, all that love and compassion dies off almost as quickly as it sprang up. It's easy to be sad when someone dies and to feel regret about the fact that there isn't any more time to say, "I love you" or make amends for harsh words that were said but not really meant. The real challenge is learning. Taking the grief and the loss and the pain and instead of expressing it for a couple of weeks and then burying it, use it to make your life and the lives of those that you care about fuller and more meaningful. Realize that life is a whole lot shorter then any one of us can imagine. Take every opportunity to enrich your life. Tell your mom/wife/father/brother/son/daughter you love them at least once a day and tons more if you know what's good for you. Stephen Anthony Castellano died for noble cause and left a whole bunch of people in pain, But I challenge every one of you to take his death with you every day as a reminder of the uncertainty of life. Don't let his death be in vain by forgetting what it felt like to lose someone you love.

[Heather]

Dear Anonymous,

I must admit, I've spent the last three months enjoying the fact that my brother made it back to US soil in one piece. A year of worry can tear you apart, and it feels so good for that weight to be off my shoulders. Even though many of us have spent less time writing our thoughts here on this awesome website, we continue to think about and pray for our soldiers and their families, those still there and those who have given their lives.

[Athena Moncure]

Dear Anonymous,
I would agree that it seems like all the commments just sort of fade, but I can tell you, there is not a minute that goes by in my families life where we don't stop and think about him. When I see the sun shine and I think Stephen's not here beside me. At night when I look up at the stars, I remember sitting next to Steve on Waikiki beach just before he left for Iraq and we discussed how the stars would be over him there and to look at them and think of each other. Every night I look up there and see a star and smile because I KNOW my cousin is in heaven with God and one day I will walk beside him again. One day I will be whole again. Though I don't post messages on these websites (in fact this is my first I think) his face, his laugh, his smile, it's all always with me. The pain of losing him is a constant reminder to me to love my family and friends every day, in every way. To always let them know how much they all mean to me. Stephen lived his life this way and I can still hear his voice saying "YO COUSIN, you know I love you girl" in his Stephen way. It's what keeps me going. Just knowing that God sent down one of the bravest most loving men and said that I get to be his cousin, I get to be there and watch him take his first steps. I get to see that kid with the wild hair come home from school, and I got to see him grow into an amazing man. No, we don't post messages like we did when Stephen died, but none of us have let him go, and we never will.
I love you Stephen!!
Your cousin
Athena

[SSG Ordonez]

I would like to tell Steven's family how deeply sorry I am for not being able to do anything for him in his last moments. He wasn't just another soldier, he was a true friend. I will remember him forever, and I send my regards to all that knew Steven.

[Quentin Duke]

I will always remember Stephen as a good listener. He and I sat on my cot in Najaf and talked for hours in the blazing heat. He showed me a stack of pics about 10 inches high of his family and friends at home. He was all about friends and family. We had tons of things to gripe about being in Iraq but if you really watched him he was doing most of the listening and less of the complaining. He was a smart soldier and a true warrior. I miss you Stephen