Luis J. Castillo remembered

Pilar Castillo has many fond memories of her younger brother, Luis Jose Castillo.

A recent one involved a July going-away party for him at an amusement park when he decided to bungee jump. Pilar Castillo said she couldn't believe he did it.

But that was characteristic of her brother: daring, fun, driven, one who follows through on promises.

In mapping out his future, the 20-year-old Lawton man had joined the military as a way to pay for college and pursue a career in law enforcement.

But that dream ended Saturday morning when he was killed in Al Anbar province, Iraq, when his unit came under small-arms fire while on patrol.

Castillo was part of a Lansing-based unit of the Marine Forces Reserve's 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.

"His passion was his family," said Rosemary Suarez, Castillo's sister-in-law.

"He was very attached to every single one of us. He was a family person. He just loved spending time with all of us."

It's hard for them to believe that someone who was so full of life is now gone.

"He was a friendly person, a person that you could rely on. He was a happy person, very athletic, and he always enjoyed going to dance parties," said his older brother, Juan Suarez.

"His goal was to be somebody in life and to become a cop," Suarez said.

Enlisting soon after graduating from Mattawan High School, Luis Castillo spent two years as a Marine reservist and was deployed to Iraq on Sept. 26.

His sister Pilar was uneasy about his desire to enter the military. But like the rest of his family, she offered her blessing.

"I supported him because that was his decision. He felt that's what he wanted to do in life. I didn't want him to go because of the circumstances, but he said to be strong for him, and I was behind him 100 percent," she said.

Castillo is the fourth soldier from this area to lose his life in the Iraq war.

Lawrence Moreland, a vice president for military contractor Moreland International, in Three Rivers, hired Castillo to work for him in December 2005.

Moreland said he selected Castillo from among 200 people vying for a job with the company, which builds fuel tanks for the military.

"He just had a different thing about him," Moreland said. "... He was very oriented religiously. That's one thing I looked up to him about."

He would put in more-than-12-hour days and was willing to work every day, including weekends, but insisted on a day for his family.

"That was extremely important, getting time together with his mother," Moreland said.

Castillo's siblings and other family members are encircling his mother, Raquel Garcia.

"She's hurting really bad, but she still says he was her hero," Pilar Castillo said. "He was all our hero. We're proud of him."

Castillo was preceded in death by his father, Uvaldo Castillo. In addition to his sister, brother and their spouses, he is survived by a sister, Jazmin Garcia, and several nieces and nephews: Adelaida Suarez, Dezanita Suarez, Deziree Suarez, Yesenia Suarez, Tatiana Jackson, Kiana Jackson and Keandre Yarbrough.

From the Gazette

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Luis J. Castillo slain by sniper