California’s War Dead

Jesus Angel Gonzalez, 22

Marines, Corporal

Based: Twentynine Palms, Calif.

1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division

Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Died: April 12, 2003

Baghdad, Iraq

Married, 1 child

Gender: Male

Hometown: Indio

High School: Indio High (Indio)

Foreign Country of Birth: Mexico

Burial: Coachella Valley Public Cemetery, Coachella, Calif.

I'm this close to losing my head. Everything's gotten real ugly.

— Jesus Angel Gonzalez, in one of his final letters to his wife, talking about sand storms ripping apart his tent

Gonzalez was born in Mexico into an activist family. In high school, he wore a brown beret and styled himself after Che Guevara. He dropped out of UC Riverside and joined the Marines but later told a family member that he had made a mistake by enlisting.