A real American Hero!

12/09/04

Josh remembered . . .

"Even when he was little, he was wearing camouflage clothing  When he was 5 and 6, he said he wanted to be a soldier and he was 12 when he told us he wanted to be a Marine," Lucero said. "I wanted him to do something else. We thought he would grow out of it, but he never did."

"He pretty much decided from the get-go that the military was what he wanted to do," said his high school guidance counselor, Alissa Asch.

 Asch added, "He's just a fun, happy person."

 A cousin, Chris Lucero, said, "I don't think he would ever regret going out there and doing what he did for his country. I think he'd do it again in a second, even knowing what it would cost him."

 "I'm proud of my son. I'm proud of him because he did what he believed in," Michael Lucero said.

 Lucero said he wants his son to be remembered for being a Marine because that's what he loved, but also that "under his uniform he was a human being, and he did what he did because he cared. He cared more about everybody else than he did about himself."

 "He was a very determined young man," his father said. "He needed to be the best. He needed to be a Marine."

 What one of his teachers clearly remembers about the last time they saw Lucero - during that August visit to Sunnyside - was how much the former student had changed.  "His stature had changed. You could see he had found his calling in life and was proud of what he had accomplished," said Paul Dye, Sunnyside mathematics teacher.  "There was a light, a glow, a presence about him that wasn't there before. Joshua had had some success in high school, but he knew he was not yet the person he was destined to be. “ "But after his Marine training, he knew he had done a job well, a job that was not easy. He was clearly different."

 "He was beaming about being a father, and so happy to be in the Marines," said Asch.

 "All the jobs he wanted to do involved taking care of other people and a lot of adrenaline," his father said.

 "I just want him to know that his dad was a great guy and he died for his country fighting for us and fighting for him, and I'm pretty sure he didn't just give up and die. He probably fought as hard as he could," said Lepes, wearing her fiancé's Marine coat.

 Marie Quintana, a Sunnyside High campus monitor, remembers Lucero when he was a pupil at Elvira. She was a teaching assistant at the time.  Quintana said the main thing she remembers about the young man when he was in elementary school was "how he was always taking care of his little sister: holding her hand, walking her to school, making sure she was OK."

"Even when he was little, he was wearing camouflage clothing. When he was 5 and 6, he said he wanted to be a soldier and he was 12 when he told us he wanted to be a Marine," Lucero said. "I wanted him to do something else. We thought he would grow out of it, but he never did."