Army Spc. Jake R. Velloza
22, of Inverness, Calif.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died May 2 in Mosul, Iraq, after being shot by enemy forces. Also killed was Spc. Jeremiah P. McCleery.
Wanted to become special ops soldier
The Associated Press
Jake R. Velloza was a football and baseball standout in high school, where Leon Feliciano served as his football coach.
Feliciano remembers Velloza playing wingback, defensive back, kick returner and kicker on a team that won the 2002 North Coast Section Class B championship in California with an 8-4 record.
“I think he knew from the first day he got into high school that he was going into the military,” Feliciano said. “We talked about college, but he said, ‘No, Coach, I want to be a Ranger doing special ops.’ He was set on his goals.”
Velloza, 22, of Inverness, Calif., was shot and killed May 2 by enemy forces in Mosul, Iraq. He was assigned to Fort Hood, Texas.
Velloza worked briefly reading meters for the North Marin Water District — for which his grandfather worked for 21 years — before he joined the Army in 2006.
He completed his first overseas tour, mostly in Baghdad, and then spent about six months training in Texas. Earlier this year, he re-upped for a second tour after a short break at home in Marin.
He is survived by his mother and father, Bob and Susan, and his fiancée, Danielle Erwin.
|
