By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

BESIDES the friends and relatives of Lance Cpl. Adam Quitugua Emul and of the other CNMI servicemembers who died in Iraq, local veterans were among those who attended the internment yesterday of the latest war casualty from the islands.
Ruth Coleman, executive secretary of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3457 and the CNMI government’s military and veterans affairs executive director, said the deaths of local servicemembers are “very sad, very disheartening, but I’m so proud of them — they are heroes.”
VFW Post Commander Mariano Fajardo said “our dead (servicemembers) give us strength to support those still living.”
He added, “If we were young again and called back to duty, we would go back to duty — it does matter where.”
Coleman said the VFW grieves with the families and friends of the fallen heroes.
“There’s nothing else we can say besides thank you to the family for raising such good men and women who served our country to fight for our security and freedom,” she said.
Fajardo noted that the five CNMI casualties died young, but added that “age does not matter — young or old, I know they performed their duties with honor and they did their best. They volunteered to defend and fight for this great country.”
Their sacrifices, he added, “are the price of our freedom that they had protected.”
Fajardo said the VFW will soon present memorial plaques to the family of Emul.