Another Nevada soldier is killed

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Thursday, June 16, 2005 | 10:59 a.m.

Jesse and Joel Jaime, twin brothers born and raised in Las Vegas, were "always together -- from when they were inside my belly on up," said their mother, Iliana, in their Henderson house Wednesday, crowded with family.

The two went into the Marines, and both ended up stationed in Ramadi, although with different platoons. Today, they will be together again -- except Joel is due to bring his brother's body back from Iraq.

Marine Cpl. Jesse Jaime, 22, is the second Las Vegas Valley resident in the last week to join the ranks of the 1,714 members of the U.S. military who have died in Iraq since the war's onset in March 2003, according to the most recent Associated Press count.

Jaime was killed Tuesday -- along with five other Marines -- when their Humvee ran over a land mine, his relatives were told by Marines.

Iliana Jaime -- along with an extended family that stretches back locally more than two decades since several of them arrived from Cuba -- was deeply affected by the loss of her son, who she said "loved what he did."

Their orderly house reflected the family's twin roots -- with two flags from the Marines posted on the garage out front and a can of strong Cuban coffee on the stove.

Pictures of both sons, in and out of uniform, cover the kitchen wall.

Iliana talked about Jesse's life as much as she could before tears -- or not wanting to cry -- interrupted her.

Jesse went to Harmon Elementary School, Woodbury Middle School and Chaparral High School. He was in the ROTC in high school, and from the time he and his brother were little, their mother said, both wanted to be firemen or policemen.

She tried to talk them out of it. " 'Over my dead body,' I would say -- because of the risk."

Many years later, she said, Joel would ask her, "What kind of risk you think there is in the Marine Corps?"

Joel had already been in Iraq three times. Jesse, though enlisted since 2002, arrived in Iraq for the first time in February.

Joel's tour of duty was up next week. Jesse was due for a visit in September, at which point the family planned on meeting his girlfriend, Jessica Escamilla, the sister of one his best buddies in the Marines.

Jesse's tour of duty was to have ended in April 2006, she said.

The brothers turned 22 on May 3. Both have said they wanted to be Metro Police officers on returning from Iraq.

Iliana recalled one of the last conversations with her son, when he beamed about being promoted to corporal.

He said he had gotten a medal "for achievement" and that he would bring it home to show her. As she recalled his pride and how excited he was to share it with her, she began crying.

In a kitchen full of relatives, Ricardo, the father of the two boys, laid out a string of adjectives to describe Jesse in staccato, Cuban Spanish:

"Full of joy. Kind. Giving to others." Then tears stopped him too.

Iliana pulled out a computer printout from flowers.com she received from him on Mother's Day. It had accompanied roses.

"I don't know why I saved that. I usually throw those things away."

As for the war effort, she said Jesse "would always say what they're doing is the right thing."

At the same time, she remembered how difficult it was seeing the two brothers enlist and go off to war.

"But your sons grow up and then they go off on their own."