[+] One of 1,550 U.S. troops killed (so far) in Iraq

Alain Kamolvathin

In 2003, shortly after the death of his father, Alain Kamolvathin made a promise to his little sister, Sidney. She was in the fifth grade then, suddenly an orphan, and Kamolvathin told her he'd earn the money to buy them a house. Someplace small, certainly, because the Army National Guard didn't pay all that much, but it would be a home for the two of them nonetheless.

In the meantime, she would live with a guardian in Blairstown. He was staying with relatives in Queens, scraping together what he could. In October, the National Guard brought him to Iraq, where Kamolvathin, a 21-year-old specialist, earned his paychecks in the dusty streets of Baghdad.

On Sunday, Jan. 16, 2005, his promise died with him. Kamolvathin, who grew up in Hardwick and Blairstown, NJ, was one of two soldiers killed when his Humvee rolled over and into a drainage trench in the Iraqi capital. The military men who arrived at the Queens home of his uncle early the next morning told the relatives Kamolvathin had drowned. Alain was the 40th service member with ties to New Jersey killed in Iraq since the war began.

"He loved his sister. I can't even explain in words how much he loved her," said a cousin, Frank Kamolvathin, of Forest Hills. "He was saving everything he had so he could buy the house for her. That's everything he was working toward."

Sidney Kamolvathin, 12, a seventh-grader at North Warren Junior High School, has uncles and aunts in New Jersey and Queens. She has the family friend, Marilyn Maring, who has cared for her for nearly two years.

But relatives became choked with emotion at the thought that she will no longer have her brother. "They were very close," said Nazarin Kamolvathin, the siblings' uncle. "It's difficult to take." Family members and friends described Kamolvathin as a quiet man, defined mostly by his love of family, computer games and the martial arts. "He was respected. He was mature. And he was very much loved," said Maring, Sidney's guardian. "He will be very much missed."

For the siblings, it had been a hard five years. Their mother, Marie, a pharmacist educated in France, died of cancer in 2000, relatives said. She was 46. Three years later, a heart attack claimed their father, Chokchai, a native of Thailand, at the age of 50. A graduate of North Warren Regional High School, Kamolvathin was already serving in the New Jersey National Guard at the time.

It was something his father had wanted. Chokchai, who went by the name Ibu, told his son the Army would provide him with training and an education, help him to become someone of whom he could be proud, Nazarin Kamolvathin said. "He joined really to fulfill his father's wish," the uncle said.

Kamolvathin moved in with his uncle after his father's death, at the same time transferring to the New York National Guard, where he served as a scout for the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment. Sidney was to remain in Blairstown with Maring. "Both sides of the family decided we didn't want to uproot her," Nazarin Kamolvathin said. "She was comfortable there. She liked the school system and the teachers. We didn't want to traumatize her any more than she had been already."

Kamolvathin spoke often of a reunion, repeating to his relatives he was making progress toward buying a house for he and his sister to share. Then came the call to head into Iraq. In daily e-mail exchanges with Nazarin Kamolvathin's son, Harris, the soldier spoke of the weather in Iraq and of his friends in the Army. He didn't say what he was doing on a daily basis.

"He wasn't allowed to talk in detail about the kinds of things he did over there," Harris Kamolvathin said. "Just, 'How are you feeling? How's the family?' Things like that." Harris Kamolvathin remembered his cousin as a fireplug of a man, short and barrel-chested, who liked to re-enact the moves he saw in martial arts films and in videos of tough-man competitions.

"He would demonstrate his moves on me," Harris Kamolvathin said, laughing, none the worse for wear. Recently, Kamolvathin e-mailed his cousin a photo of himself from Iraq, chin up in a classic tough-guy stance.

Relatives said he also spoke often by phone with his sister. Just after New Year's Day, Sidney Kamolvathin proudly announced to her friends that her brother had been awarded a Purple Heart, said Lyndsey Myers, 12, a classmate who plays with Sidney on the junior high school's field hockey team.

Family members said Kamolvathin was recommended for the award after suffering minor injuries when his Humvee struck a roadside bomb in Baghdad. Kamolvathin planned to leave the National Guard after his current commitment was up, his family said. He'd stay close by his sister, they said, find work that provided him with decent hours and that allowed him to be more of a caretaker.

"He was a beautiful person," Nazarin Kamolvathin said. "He wanted to take care of his sister, and I really supported that. I told Alain and Sidney that I wanted them to be together. I told them that their mother and father would have wanted them to be together."

Comments posted by friends and family:
[Alain was killed on Jan. 16, 2005, and the following tributes and remembrances were posted by friends and family shortly thereafter. His story is but one of the 1,550 U.S. troopswho have died so far in Iraq. -- Editor]

Alain Kamolvathin
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 21 2005 @ 04:12 PM EST
RIP Alain Im going to miss you Soo much! I will never forget the good times! Thank you for being my best friend.

Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 22 2005 @ 11:22 PM EST "Blessed are the mournful for they shall be comforted." My sympathy goes out to his family and friends... Alain will truly be missed.. I'm grateful God chose to cross our paths if even for a short while.. Much Love to our fallen soldier.. our fallen angel.. Alain

Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 29 2005 @ 11:20 AM EST I still can't believe you're gone. Even after your funeral yesterday, I'm in shock. It was so hard. You have no idea. I couldn't stand to see those men hand sidney a folded flag, she's 12. It hurt so bad. Whatever happens I will always remember you, and how honorable you were. I'll certainly be thinking of you when I graduate from Basic next year. I made a promise when we talked, and I'm not going back on it. RIP Alain Kamolvathin 1-16-05

Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, January 31 2005 @ 08:09 AM EST Alain, I hope you can read this or hear my prayers. You are in my heart till we meet again. I still can remember all the days we hung out, you are my brother, my best friend and cousin, and I miss you so much. The thing you never knew, is that I looked up to you, your dedication, loyalty, "fearlessness" and faith gave me new respect for life. I thank you for being in my life, you saved me plenty of times, though I let you down. I was supposed to protect you and I failed. I love you, I miss you, I wish you were here. Alain, be safe, and don't cause too much trouble up there!! Be good.

Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, February 14 2005 @ 05:56 PM EST [no written words]

Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, February 17 2005 @ 03:36 PM EST Words cant express how much you will be missed here on earth. It's hard to admit to myself that ur no longer around, but I know now ur safe. It hurts more than ever that the first funeral I had to attend was urs, the same person who saved me from taking my life. I'll always love you and u'll always be my best friend. I can't wait to be with you again, we have some unfinished business.

Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, February 26 2005 @ 08:55 PM EST Alain i love you and miss ur so much. I cannot understand why a person as wonderful as you had to be taken from us. I love you and i know we will be together someday i just wish we could have in this life. I miss you sweetheart and i love you. I will never forget you! love ya Erin