Reprint from the Progress Times - April 4, 2008
©Progress Times 2008 - All Rights Reserved

Funeral services today for fallen Mission soldier

Cpl. Jose A. Rubio, Mission’s second soldier to die in Iraq, will be buried today.

Funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Mission. Rev. Roy Snipes will officiate.

Following the mass, Rubio will be buried with full military honors at the Rio Grande Valley State Veterans Cemetery in Mission.

The U.S. Army Honor Guard, which has been ordered to attend Cpl. Rubio, will arrive at the cemetery in advance of the funeral processional. Six members of the Honor Guard will serve as pallbearers.

A U.S. Army firing party of five soldiers will fire three rounds across the heart of the fallen soldier, signifying duty, honor, country. Afterwards, a bugler will play Taps.

The United States flag, which has been draped across the soldier’s casket will be presented to Rubio’s widow by Major General Huber. The general will also present the family with several Army medals awarded posthumously to Cpl. Rubio. These will include the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Good Conduct and War on Terrorism medals.

Cpl. Rubio, age 24, was killed by a roadside bomb in the vicinity of Baghdad, Iraq on Monday, March 24. Three other soldiers in his unit died in the blast.

Rubio had been in the U.S. Army for two and one-half years and was posthumously promoted to corporal. He was stationed in Baghdad on active duty at the time of his death.

Born March 19, 1984, to Jose and Macaria Rubio in Reynosa, Mexico, he grew up in Mission and attended Mission schools.

He is survived by his wife, Jennifer J. Rubio, his son, Nikolai Cyrus and his parents. Other survivors include two brothers, Edgar Rubio and Jose Heriberto Rubio, and six sisters, Beatris Rubio, Adela Castillo, Josefina Rubio, Maria Martinez, Cecilia Rubio, and Juany Rubio.

Virgil Wilson Mortuary of Mission is in charge of the funeral arrangements.