Army Spc. Marcos O. Nolasco, 34, San Diego; Electrocuted in Iraq

As a boy growing up in San Diego’s Paradise Hills neighborhood, Army Spc. Marcos O. Nolasco longed to see the world.

So, when he decided to enlist in the Marine Corps to travel the globe after graduating from Tierrasanta High School in 1989, his relatives and friends weren’t surprised.

Nolasco’s wanderlust took him to Okinawa, Japan; Bamberg, Germany; and, eventually Baji, Iraq, where he was killed May 18 as the result of an electrocution accident, military officials said.

Nolasco, 34, who was assigned to Battery B, 1st Battalion, 33rd Field Artillery, 1st Infantry Division in Bamberg, died when overhead electrical lines fell into the water where he was taking a shower, said his sister, Carmen Duran, 32, of El Monte.

“I spoke to him just hours before he passed away,” she said. “His last words to me were, ‘Take care, sister. I love you so much. Don’t ever worry about me. Nothing will ever happen to me.’ ”

Nolasco was born on April 18, 1970, in Guadalajara, and moved with his family to San Diego when he was 5.

During his five-year stint in the Marine Corps, Nolasco met his future wife, Mariko, when he was stationed in Okinawa.

After his discharge from the Marines, the couple moved to America and were married in Los Angeles, where their son, Angel, now 10, was born.

The family later returned to Okinawa, where Nolasco worked as a graphic designer for sports magazines.

But working in an office did little to satisfy his desire to visit foreign lands, his sister said. “Since he loved traveling the world, he wanted to join the military again,” Duran said.

Nolasco reenlisted and moved his family to Bamburg in 1994, Duran said. Nolasco departed for Iraq in January.

Throughout his tour of duty in Iraq, Nolasco frequently wrote and called his sister. The siblings had become particularly close after their mother, Rosa Maria Avalos, died in May 2003.

“We had conversations about him possibly dying in Iraq,” Duran said. “He wasn’t scared if anything happened to him because he knew his wife and son would be taken care of.”

Nolasco also is survived by his father, Margarito of Chino; and a half brother, Arturo Avalos, 15, and half sister, Carolina Manriquez, 10, both of San Diego.

Funeral arrangements were pending.