Community mourns Marine

Thursday, June 23, 2005 | 11:14 a.m.

Eugene Escamilla looked at the floor of Palm Mortuary and recalled his best friend's advice about Iraq.

Shortly before June 15, when the Humvee in which Marine Cpl. Jesse Jaime was riding was blown up, killing the Henderson resident, Jaime told Escamilla: " 'If you have a choice, don't come.' "

On Wednesday, Escamilla, who roomed with Jaime during training, seemed stunned by the idea that he wasn't going to see his buddy when he gets sent to Iraq in the coming weeks. Or ever again.

Escamilla's little sister, Jessica, had fallen in love with Jaime during a week off last year, and the two talked of marriage.

Now, he said, "everybody's just waiting over there for the next IED (improvised explosive device)."

Meanwhile, everybody at the mortuary Wednesday was grappling with the loss of a young, vibrant life.

Richard Perez, father of Lance Cpl. Richard Perez Jr., who was killed Feb. 10 in Iraq, was at the mortuary to offer support to the Jaimes.

"I was hoping my son would be the last," he said. "When is it going to end?"

Sgt. Joseph A. Kapala, shaking his head at the sight of family, Marines and complete strangers paying their respects, said, "We're at war. We lose a lot of fine men."

"It's a very tough time."

It was Kapala's job to put together the team of five Marines who broke the news to Jaime's parents June 15 at 1 a.m. in their Henderson home.

Only hours earlier, Jaime's twin brother, Joel, was performing security duty not too far from where Jesse's car blew up.

Though the two turned 22 on May 3, Joel was already on his third tour of duty in Iraq. Jesse arrived in Iraq in February. Joel was on the same flight. The two were also in the same battalion but different platoons.

Around 2 a.m. June 15 -- Iraq is 11 hours ahead of than Las Vegas -- an officer asked Joel, "Did you hear that explosion?"

"I don't know why but I started pacing and got sick to my stomach -- like someone punched me," Jesse's twin recalled.

Shortly after, someone said the names of those killed in the blast.

"I felt like something was taken away from me," he said.

Though he was due to end his tour of duty June 28, Joel got permission to take emergency leave and accompany his brother's remains home.

"I flew into Iraq with him and wanted to fly out with him," he said, his dark eyes intense.

"I just wanted to come home with him."

His brother had some close calls during the months before the explosion.

"It's always been the car in front of him or the car in back."

He said they never talked about the danger they were in.

"But sometimes I would think about this at night. What if something happens to him?"

"But we never talked. ... He was always the more expressive one anyway."

The two did speak of "getting out," becoming Metro Police officers, Jesse getting married, the two couples -- Joel has been married since 2002 -- living together.

Joel lapsed into present tense a few times -- "My brother he gets out in April," he said once.

He also spoke of his family's Cuban heritage and being a U.S. Marine.

"My father came from a country where there is no freedom and he feels there is no greater honor than to fight and die for freedom."

Nancy Zapata, Eugene and Jessica Escamilla's mother, recalled the old-fashioned courtship Jesse went through with her daughter, including his insistence on holding doors open for his girlfriend.

He sent her a stuffed puppy that said "I love you" when Jessica squeezed its stomach.

Now she's worried about Jessica, who's 18 and a recent high school graduate. Not only did she just lose her first love, but her father, from whom Zapata is divorced, is also in Iraq, a soldier in the U.S. Army.

"It's too much pressure," she said.

Standing nearby, Cpl. Josh Sanchez, 22, said Jesse was "a friend who was able to listen, give an opinion and help me feel better" when the baby-faced Marine had family problems during training.

Lance Cpl. Matthew Luczak, 23, called himself "a hard person to open up -- but with him (Jesse) it was easy."

The two are due to start a tour of duty in Iraq on July 16.

Luczak said he tries not to think of the danger awaiting him, "since we knew about that when we signed the contract."

Sanchez said his friend's death makes the war seem different.

"I would always tell him I wanted to serve my country but this really hits home. It makes me more afraid."