Yari Mokri remembered

Spc. Yari Mokri, 26, was supposed to come home for Christmas. Secretly married before his deployment, he and his wife, Andrea, were supposed to have a more traditional wedding next year.

But his sister, Desiree Mokri, said, "Like all of our military men and women, this soldier was taken too soon."

Yari Mokri was killed by a bomb Dec. 6 while serving in Hawijah, Iraq, a city of 40,000 near the Zab River about 175 miles north of Baghdad.

He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 25th Infantry Division; four other U.S. soldiers died with him.

The family of the Pflugerville High School graduate was silent for days after his death but decided to share his story Tuesday.

His father, Mohammad, and mother, Donna, declined to speak with reporters, but his sister said she will miss her brother's sense of humor and beautiful smile.

"He was always trying to make us laugh," Desiree Mokri said.

He would impersonate characters from "Saturday Night Live" and could hold entire conversations in movie quotes.

He had a big heart: He told his family he really enjoyed games of soccer with Iraqi soldiers, who played barefoot. He had planned to give one of them his shoes before he left.

Mokri graduated from Texas State University in 2005, where he received a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. While studying, he interned for the Austin Police Department's homicide unit.

A month after graduating, he joined the Army's counterintelligence division as a stepping stone to a career in criminal justice.

The family was shocked when he joined the Army because "we were in the middle of a war," his sister said, and tried to talk him out of it.

Mokri was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii and was deployed to Iraq in September.

"He never really talked about the war because he didn't want us to worry," his sister said. "He'd always say, 'I'll tell you when I get back.' "

The family plans to create several scholarships in Mokri's name, at Pflugerville High and at Texas State.

From the Statesman

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