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Associated Press

December 27, 2005
HONOLULU - A soldier from central Oahu who was assigned to Aberdeen Proving Ground was killed Saturday in Iraq, according to the Defense Department.

Sgt. Myla L. Maravillosa, 24, of Wahiawa had emigrated from the Philippines in 1997 and wanted to serve her adopted country, a family member said Sunday.

She died of injuries sustained in Al Hawijah, Iraq, when her Humvee was attacked by enemy forces armed with rocket-propelled grenades, the Defense Department said in a news release.

"She was doing a heroic job," her mother, Estelita Maravillosa, told The Honolulu Advertiser.

After graduating from Leilehua High School and two years after moving to the United States, Maravillosa joined the Army Reserve in 1999. She was assigned to the 203rd Military Intelligence Battalion at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

She had attended Leeward Community College in Hawaii and aspired to work at a U.S. embassy. She planned to attend Hawaii Pacific University this year, but was deployed to Iraq on Nov. 20.

Estelita Maravillosa, 62, was notified of the death Christmas Eve at her Wahiawa apartment.

"This is a very bad Christmas," she said. "She is my only child. She is my only daughter."

Myla Maravillosa attended the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu. She was remembered during Mass on Sunday at St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston, where she went for a Catholic retreat after her military training.