Pedro J. Colon killed in attack

Pedro J. Colon was homeless as a teenager in Cicero, eating at local food pantries and keeping his possessions in plastic garbage bags.

At Morton East High School, from which he would eventually graduate, he looked to the military for security and a sense of belonging. He enlisted in the Army in August 2001, a month before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

On Monday, Colon, 25, a sergeant, was killed in Baghdad after his unit came under enemy fire. As of late Thursday, military personnel could not say where he would be buried.

Such transience marked much of his short life. He had been kicked out of his parents' home in the Bronx when he was 18, according to school officials. What caused the family rift wasn't clear. Colon's family could not be reached for comment.

The teenager landed in Cicero, where a friend's family said he could stay temporarily. He enrolled as a senior at Morton East and joined the track team. When Colon had to move on from the friend's home, he landed at a youth shelter on Chicago's North Side. He commuted to Morton East until a social worker at the school found him emergency housing closer to school.

Many of his teachers, even his track coach, said Thursday that they had no idea Colon had been living such a precarious existence.

"I never, never knew," said Michael Weber, former head track coach and a current guidance counselor at Morton East. "I think it's remarkable if he was living in a shelter."

Colon's guidance counselor, Michael Neberz, now at Glenbard West High School, said he tried to reach out to Colon's family in the Bronx but said they rebuffed his efforts. He could not recall the reason for the estrangement.

"They were over him," Neberz said of the teenager's immediate family. "He was on his own."

Neberz, like a handful of other adults, tried to help. He invited Colon for Christmas dinner. He recalled how humbled the teenager seemed by the attention and that Colon talked at length to Neberz's father, who was a veteran, about basic training.

By all accounts, Colon aspired for a career in the military. He talked of becoming an Army Ranger and working in Special Operations.

Morton East's military liaison, guidance counselor Michael Kennedy, wrote a letter of recommendation to help Colon get into the service.

Kennedy described Colon on Thursday as a humble kid who wore a big grin and who was well-liked by staff. He remembered buying him a CTA bus pass at one point so that he could get back to his shelter.

"He was the kind of kid that gets very little notice," Kennedy said. "He never causes any trouble."

Shelter closer to school

When Morton East social worker Michelle Murray learned of Colon's long commute, she helped secure emergency shelter closer to the high school. Helping him move, she spotted his luggage: overflowing plastic garbage bags. He got his food from a local pantry. He had to give up track to get a part-time job, she said.

"Getting a high school diploma was the most important thing to him," she said. "That and the military. I guess if you are a kid who has no family, I guess it makes sense."

Brandy Gill, a military spokeswoman at Ft. Hood, Texas, said it was still is unclear where Colon would be buried. She said she did not know if he had left a will or what the wishes of his family were. The military covers burial costs, she said, adding that his body was expected to arrive in the United States by early next week.

Details about his Army career trickled in slowly from the military. As of late Thursday, a prepared release from the Department of Defense said he was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division; worked as a power generation equipment repairer; and had been on this tour in Iraq since November. He received six service medals.

In the 2000-2001 school year, Mary O'Donnell began her first year as an English and history teacher at Morton East.

"I thought he was amazing," she said. "He was incredibly hard-working. He had kind of an old soul."

Marcela Porras, too, found Colon inspiring. Now an insurance broker, she was reporting for Lawndale News, a bilingual newspaper based in Cicero, when she met Colon his senior year while researching a story about students overcoming great obstacles.

"The thing I remember most was his positive attitude," she said. "He talked about being homeless but more that he wanted to be an Army Ranger. It wasn't if he could do it, it was he will do it."

In 2001, Hector Freytas was a junior on the track team. He remembered Colon as a sweet guy who ran long-distance. Now a Spanish teacher at Morton East, Freytas heard about Colon's death in an e-mail from a colleague.

`A happy individual'

"I remember him being such a happy individual," Freytas said. "Every day, he was always punctual. Always arrived with a great smile. Always had his head up high."

Colon graduated from Morton East in spring 2001. A few months later, he was in the Army.

Social worker Murray said she was so proud to learn that Colon had risen to the rank of sergeant.

"It's a shame he couldn't come back and tell his story to the kids here," she said. "He'd be such a role model."

From the Chicago Tribune