By Emmanuel T.Erediano
Variety News Staff

RAY Dela Cruz, 32, still recalls the last words to him of his brother-in-law, Lance Cpl. Adam Quitugua Emul, right before they parted at the Portland airport in September last year.
“I told him to be careful and always be with his buddy,” Dela Cruz said. “I told him I believed in him and would see him when he got back.”
Emul, he said, replied, “Take care of everybody — don’t worry, I’ll be back.”
Dela Cruz said Emul surprised them a few years back in Vancouver, Washington about his decision to join the Marine Corps.
“He just arrived from school and announced to everybody that he was joining the Marines,” Dela Cruz said.
Emul was still in junior high school when he moved in with his relatives in Vancouver. He continued his studies at Hudson Bay High School.
“I knew that’s what he wanted — to join the service,” Dela Cruz said. “He’d been saying that since he was still in high school, but everybody at home was surprised by his announcement.”
First Sgt. Gene Santos of the Army Reserve on Saipan declined to disclose how many active duty soldiers from the CNMI are in Iraq now. But he did say there are six CNMI reservists in Iraq.
The CNMI has over 100 soldiers with the 302nd Quarter Master Company which will attend further training in North Carolina, and the 100th Battalion’s Echo Company is preparing for advanced training in Hawaii.
CNMI Military Veteran Affairs executive secretary Ruth Coleman said the commonwealth has 450 soldiers on active duty and deployed abroad in all five branches of the armed forces.
Coleman, a retired Air Force officer who has two sons in the military, one on Guam and another in South Korea, said joining the military means winning the respect and admiration of the nation.
“They are fighting for our freedom,” she said.