Slain soldier joined Army to ‘keep us free’

At 11 a.m. Thursday, Richard Geraldo, 19, added two candles to a memorial to his childhood friend Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr. that was created about midnight on the steps of the main entrance to South High School in Torrance.

“I set some candles down with a vow: I’m sorry I couldn’t be there, Joe, but I’ll make it up to you by going over there and doing your job.”

Geraldo, who was recently discharged from the Marine Corps because of a medical problem, said he was working with a recruiter to get back into the Marines as soon as possible.

“I’d go over there now if I could,” he said.

Like many of Anzack’s childhood friends, Geraldo endured rumors a month ago that Anzack, 20, had been killed in action in Baghdad. And like them, he searched the Internet and studied news reports for word on Anzack’s fate.

Some South High students even posted a sign outside the school that read, “In Loving Memory -- Joe Anzack -- Class of 2005.”

Anzack dispelled the rumors with a call home from Iraq: “Hey, Dad, it’s me.” He later posted a message on his MySpace page: “im not dead. im still kickin.” The page was last updated April 24.

Then, two weeks ago, news came that Anzack and two other soldiers were missing.

As recently as a few days ago, “I didn’t think Joe would make it, but I hoped for a miracle,” Geraldo said.

On Wednesday about 5 p.m., not long after military officials had delivered the somber news to Anzack’s family, Geraldo was told by a friend that Anzack’s body had been found.

“I called a few people about it and learned it was true,” Geraldo said. “But it didn’t hit home until this morning” when he was at a grocery store and saw a front-page newspaper article and photograph.

“The headlines hit me hard,” he said.

Geraldo stared for about 10 minutes at the photo of Iraqis pulling Anzack’s body out of the Euphrates River. He stood stock-still on the sidewalk, he said, and recalled his junior high school days when he and Anzack played weekend war games in Geraldo’s backyard.

He said they sometimes dressed in camouflage and, armed with paintball and BB guns, devised attack strategies against imaginary enemies. Usually, he said, the mock exercises culminated with “me and Joe wrestling and fighting on the lawn.”

Geraldo said that he and Anzack parted ways in the ninth grade. But, he said, “I joined the military for the same reasons he did -- to keep us free.”

The memorial, with American flags, dozens of candles and bouquets of flowers surrounds a sign that reads: “We love and miss you, Joe Anzack. You’re our hero.”

Principal Scott McDowell said the memorial, about four miles west of the modest second-story apartment where Anzack’s parents and other loved ones have been grieving, “has become a central place for kids to congregate.”

“This is a huge tragedy for the family and the kids who knew him,” McDowell said. “Joe was a strong and quiet kid, and he had a tight circle of friends who played football and wrestled like he did.”

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louis.sahagun@latimes.com