Elias Elias remembered

GLENDORA - Like countless Army wives before her, Carmen Elias knew what it meant when two uniformed men came to her house.

"I couldn't contain myself," she said, almost inaudibly, recalling how she found out that her husband, 27-year-old Army Spc. Elias Elias, had been killed by an explosion in Baghdad, Iraq, on the day before Christmas Eve.

She never did see him often enough, she said. His Army service kept him away for months at a stretch, but they made the most of the time when they were together. The pair eloped eight months ago.

"He made me feel so happy, it made up for the time that we weren't together," she said. "I was the happiest woman on Earth when he was around me."

Her husband, who lived in Glendora when he left for his first deployment in 2004, became the first soldier from Glendora killed in the Iraq war. He was originally from Lebanon and moved to the United States with his younger sister, Elsie Elias.

"We were born and raised in Lebanon," Elsie said. "My father wanted us to have a better education so he sent us here."

The two were close, and she was devastated by news of his death.

"I couldn't believe it," she said. "I thought, `I won't believe it.' It wasn't an option."

She and Carmen both described Elias as a strong, handsome man with a good sense of humor and a sarcastic streak. He was a sports nut, very bright, and enjoyed playing basketball and poker with friends, family members said.

Elias' cousin, Johnny Jabbour, said Elsie and Elias came to live with his family in La Verne when they were about 4 and 5 years old. Elsie and Elias were like his own brother and sister, Jabbour said.

Elias went to Mt. San Antonio College, where he excelled at math, Elsie said. The siblings traveled back and forth to Lebanon before moving to Glendora, then Azusa, and then when Elias got married he moved to Fontana.

"We were always together," Elsie said. "It was just me and him traveling. We were never separated until he joined the Army."

He loved the Army, his wife said.

"He talked about the military with such honor," Carmen added.

But even though they talked on the phone almost every day, he didn't tell her much about what he was doing.

"He didn't want to scare me or worry me, so ... he just said he was OK," Carmen said.

Elias was a chemical operations specialist three months into his second tour of duty in Iraq. A fluent Arabic speaker, he also served as a translator.

Jabbour agreed that Elias loved his work, but said that his cousin was uncomfortable about the war. Elias loved movies like "Rambo" and "Rocky" and enjoyed training with the big guns and macho vehicles - but he didn't want to use them, Jabbour said.

"We'd be like, `We're excited for you, you're the Rambo of the family - what's the matter?' and he'd say, `It's not like that. I don't know why we're there. It's not right,"' Jabbour said. "He liked the work, but he didn't like why he was there."

When his second deployment began in October, he was given more dangerous assignments such as raiding buildings and searching for explosives, Jabbour said. Elias began to call home more often.

"He had a feeling something might happen to him."

Carmen said she last spoke to her husband about what she would do for Christmas. He wanted his wife and his sister to spend the holiday together. He arranged for each to get the other gifts from him, Carmen said.

"I thought I'd hear from him again, but I didn't," she said.

A private funeral service will take place Tuesday.

From the Bulletin

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