Terror victim mourned at AFA chapel

When Caryn Rodriguez met her future husband during a spring break vacation in Mexico in 1997, he told her he attended a small college in Colorado Springs she'd probably never heard of.

A few weeks later she learned he was an Air Force Academy cadet.

She married Rodolfo "Rod" Ivan Rodriguez at the Air Force Academy Chapel in June 2000, two years after he graduated.

Monday, she returned to the chapel, with 160 other mourners, to bid farewell to her "quiet and humble" hero, killed Sept. 20 in a terrorist bombing at a Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Rodolfo Rodriguez, 34, was the 10th Air Force Academy graduate killed since the war on terrorism began after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City and Washington.

His name will join the 172 other graduates killed in combat or in enemy attacks on the academy's Memorial Wall.

Rodriguez, with the 86th Construction and Training Squadron, was in Pakistan on a training mission when a suicide bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives into the hotel, killing 53 and injuring more than 200.

He was one of two American service members killed. The other was Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew O'Bryant, 22, a Navy cryptologist from Duluth, Ga.

During the memorial service, Rodriguez's brother, Edgar Rivas, 21, described him as a role model who gave selflessly.

"He taught me how to shave, how to do a tie, how to be a man," Rivas said.

Rodriguez was an athlete and a musician in high school, playing football and soccer and ran track and was in the marching band.

Despite there being little money after his father died when Rodriguez was 18, he found a way to be Santa Claus for his younger brothers, Edgar and Fernie.

Rivas said his brother worked hard at his civil engineering major and finished in the top 10 of his class.

Caryn Rodriguez also spoke of her husband's generosity.

"He would give to a friend money, time, his possessions or just an ear if they asked."

For her 30th birthday party, he spent a week preparing food and cleaning house but never revealed his birth date to co-workers.

"He led by example," she said. "He stayed late, making sure every airman got the grade he deserved for a job well done. He never acknowledged the contribution he was making."

Monday's service included a 21-gun salute, canopy of swords, taps and a flyover by the F-18s of the Canadian aerobatic team, the Snowbirds - fanfare that probably would have embarrassed Rodriguez.

"He would want to be remembered as someone with a personal honor code, who did his duty quietly and never asked for anything," his widow said.

Rodriguez was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal and Air Force Combat Action Medal posthumously on Monday.

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Contact the writer: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazette.com