Spc Manuel Joaquin Holguin
Born: August 29, 1984 in Visalia, California
Died: July 15, 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq
Spc. Manuel J. Holguin of Woodlake, California was known best by his middle name, Joaguin. When he was a small boy he, his brother, and friends would play soldiers when he was a small boy, hiking into the hills on adventures. He enjoyed sports and participated in soccer and baseball, first in youth leagues then at Woodlake High School. His smiling eyes and wide grin always melted hearts. No one was able to overcome his charming personality. Joaquin was full of life and wanted to enjoy every minute of it. He wasn’t one to sit around for long because there was too much to do, some place to go, or someone to see. He made friends easily whether it was in school, sports, or just kicking it. When he graduated in 2002, he followed up on a life-long ambition of joining the Army. He was sent to basic and advanced infantry training at Fort Benning, where he was awarded his platoon’s High Marksman Award and received his Infantryman’s blue chord. During his first tour in Iraq, he had at least two opportunities to return to the United States during his two tours of duty in Iraq, but selflessly decided to stay with his unit. He turned down his first chance to go home to allow a married man to return to his family, the second time, he didn’t want to leave his friends in the unit fighting with a man short. He eventually spent 15 months in Iraq during some of the fiercest fighting of the war. When his division was rotated out of Iraq, the Brigades colonel, the driver, and Joaquin, the gunner on the Humvee made sure they were the last of the division to leave Iraq. The colonel broke out cigars and they celebrated at the Kuwait-Iraq border Joaquin doesn’t smoke, but like he said, when the colonel asks, you don’t refuse. Even after he was extended past his original date to exit the Army, he had reservations about having to go back to Iraq, but he said he could not say no, knowing he would be letting down his buddies that were going back. He was a man with honor and convictions that drove him to do the right thing. He had no qualms about why he was in the military and what his job was. He was very proud of what he did. Joaquin was also very much about family. Family always came first to him. Whenever he was on leave, he made sure he tried to make the rounds and see everyone. At family get-togethers he would be in the middle of everything, kidding and joking with everyone. Poking fun and making us laugh. Everyone would say, he’s just like his Grandpa Pancho, feisty but lovable. He loved that comparison to his grandfather. Whenever he called home, he asked how everyone was doing and how he wished he could be there. For some of his girl cousins this sometimes proved embarrassing when their boyfriends would get a brotherly warning about appropriate behavior towards his cousins. He also was the typical big brother, giving advice, lecturing, giving gifts, but mostly giving love to his younger brother Javier. We would not have asked for a better son. He always tried to do the right thing and most of the time he did. Even when he made mistakes, he owned up to them, took his consequences, and tried to learn from them. He leaves his mother, Lydia, his father, Manuel, and a brother Javier. He was 21.
Army
2nd Battalion
6th Infantry Regiment
2nd Brigade
1st Armored Division
Baumholder, Germany
Burial is at Visalia Public Cemetery in Visalia, California
The Spc Manuel Joaquin Holguin by Freedom Remembered, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
