Eric Rivera remembered

ATLANTIC CITY — Eric Rivera's last words home came in the mail Thursday.

“Yo FATT!” shouted the exuberant letter to brother Jefferson Rivera, 27. “What's really really good?”

Rivera's family said uniformed Army officials visited their North Brighton Avenue home Tuesday evening to tell them their son, Spc. Eric Rivera, 21, had been killed in Iraq.

“I got home and I saw a couple soldiers outside, uniformed soldiers,” Jeff said, “and as soon as I saw them I knew my brother was dead.”

Eric Rivera, who graduated with Atlantic City High School's 2003 class, is the first resort resident to die in the Iraq war. A funeral is planned for Dec. 2 at Our Lady Star of the Sea in the city.

Rivera was assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry division, based in Schweinfurt, Germany. The Department of Defense has not yet officially confirmed his death.

While friends and family gathered in the family home, the postman delivered a letter Eric wrote Nov. 3 and mailed Nov. 5.

“Right now, current operations are busy,” he wrote. He and his platoon were working five-day shifts between the main Camp Ramadi base and an outpost in the al-Tamin district west of Ramadi.

“We just sleep what we can,” he wrote. In camp, “we would raid at least eight buildings, that's including schools & other gov't areas. Oh yeah, there are bomb caches in schools hidden.”

“But thank the Lord that loves me that I have not been shot in the face yet,” he added.

His brother, Jeff, was stunned to read those words Thursday.

“Everything is there. He knew he was going to die,” Jeff Rivera said. “The part where he was going to get shot in the face, everything.”

The letter continued, “I am the first man in all the time and I now have three Joes under me. ... I always put myself before them.”

Back at base, Eric wrote about using the Internet, listening to music and cleaning his weapon. “It's funny to say but it feels like I have no life. I'm so brainwashed by the Army ... but I love it.”

At the end of the four-page letter, Eric told his brother, a prospective Atlantic City police officer hired Aug. 31 and currently attending the police academy, that he wanted to see the academy graduation. “It would mean a lot to me if I see you like you saw me in my uniform,” he wrote.

Eric closed by telling Jeff to give his love to the family. “Its great how two bros still come in contact from far away,” he wrote. “I hope we never stop talking and keep the fam tight. I got you in my heart.”

And then, almost as a postscript, “Don't tell moms I'm here.”

Jeff Rivera said their mother was so worried about her son that he and his brother told her he was in Germany. She learned the truth of his whereabouts only after he died.

Their mother, Cayetana Palacios, 51, is a housekeeper at Caesars Atlantic City. Born in El Salvador, she moved in 1978 to California, where Jeff was born, then in 1982 to Atlantic City, where Eric was born.

Palacios stood in her parlor Thursday afternoon. On the woodgrain TV stand was Eric Rivera's prom picture, a photo taken when he finished basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., and another photo of him in uniform. A Bible in Spanish was propped open to the Book of Psalms, Chapter 91. Nearby, St. Jude and Virgin of Guadalupe devotional candles flickered.

Palacios said she last saw her son in June, when she flew to Schweinfurt, Germany, to visit him on leave. They toured the country, and Palacios, a devout Catholic, swooned at the sights of the German cathedrals.

Holding back tears Thursday, she whispered, “He call me a queen and I called him my king. And he was so sweet all the time.”

When she got ready to return to the United States on June 12, she said, he grabbed her, jumped ecstatically and said he was so happy to see her. “I say, ‘Me, too,' and now, I don't see him no more,” she said, burying her face in Jeff's shoulder, weeping.

Several minutes later, she said her last conversation came Sunday.

“He says, ‘Mom I want to tell you something.' He said, ‘Remember me.' I said, ‘Oh no, don't say that.' Because I don't know he was in Iraq. He don't told me. ... He did not want to tell me because he did not want to make me sad.

“I told you my heart is very sad because I lose somebody very beautiful, sweet, Catholic — he believes in God — he is so nice,” he said. “I hope people pray for him, because Atlantic City lose somebody good. But when I remember him, in Germany, no no no ... unbelievable.”

Eric Rivera joined the Army shortly after high school. Before he did, he talked with Vietnam veteran and now-retired art teacher Joseph Duffy.

Rivera had a “subdued sort of excitement,” Duffy said, when they discussed the chance that he would serve in Iraq.

“We didn't talk about whether (the war) was right or wrong. We just talked about him going (to Iraq). We both kind of felt like that was where he was headed,” Duffy said. “He was a good kid, I'm sure he was a good soldier.”

Eric talked about enlisting, Jeff said, but instead of seeking his family's approval, he surprised them with the decision. He re-enlisted the same way last June. He was close to a promotion to sergeant.

“He wasn't afraid,” Jeff said. “When you have to go, you have to go. It's your destiny.”

He said his brother ultimately wanted to spend 20 years in the Army, retire, and then join the Atlantic City Police Department's SWAT team.

Eric led by example, and said other soldiers told him stories of how Eric had saved their lives. “He was always there for the people, and got the job done,” Jeff said. “They said, ‘Do this,' and he would do it.”

His brother was a happy, helpful, generous person, Jeff said, who could get people laughing.

“He wasn't afraid,” Jeff said, “and he would never back down from anything and he would always help people out. That is what I am going to remember him by, helping people out when they need help.”

Mayor Bob Levy planned to meet with the family privately, spokesman Nick Morici said. Morici said the city extended thoughts and prayers to the family, and Eric Rivera “makes our Atlantic City area very proud.”

From the Atlantic City Press

Atlantic City Suffers First Iraq War Casualty

ATLANTIC COUNTY, N.J. -- Family members were told by the military at their Atlantic City home Tuesday that 21-year-old Army specialist Eric Rivera had been killed in Iraq.

But his older brother knew before the devastating words were uttered.

“As soon as I parked my car and saw two uniformed soldiers outside my house, as soon as I saw them, I knew my brother was dead," said Jeff Rivera

The family put up ribbons outside their home Thursday as they tried to cope with their grief.

Eric Rivera's death was devastating to this community, as well. He's the first military member from Atlantic City to lose his life in Iraq.

“I’m so sad now because Atlantic City lose good man,” said Cayetana Palcios, Rivera's mother.

“He wasn’t afraid of anything. It’s a shame because he was a good person," said Jeff Rivera.

Loved ones said they learned Eric -- a 2003 graduate of Atlantic City High School -- died after coming under enemy fire Tuesday in Balad, Iraq.

It was his second tour of duty in Iraq. He voluntarily re-enlisted in the military and returned just two months ago.

“He died doing what he loved. He wasn’t forced there. He did it on his own," Jeff Rivera said. “… He said he wanted to go back because, obviously, the job wasn’t done. A lot of his buddies were still there, and he didn’t want to leave him.”

Jeff Rivera is set become an Atlantic City police officer in January. His baby brother hoped to join him on the force when he retired from the military.

The war has dashed those hopes, but Jeff Rivera said he believes in spirit and his brother will still be with him.

“He’ll be there to protect me, I know. He’s my angel now," Jeff Rivera said.

Eric Rivera’s body is expected to arrive at Dover Air Force Base this weekend.

His family plans to bury him two days after Thanksgiving.

From NBC 10

Related Link:
Eric G. Palacios Rivera killed by sniper