Army Staff Sgt. Marc A. Arizmendez, 30, Anaheim; among 3 killed in blast

In Afghanistan, Army Staff Sgt. Marc A. Arizmendez led a unit that specialized in retrieving military vehicles damaged in combat and getting them back on the road in working order as quickly as possible.

Arizmendez, who had a knack for mechanical work and a passion for vintage Volkswagens, was in his element, fixing tanks and Humvees while assigned to the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, based in Hohenfels, Germany.

In Germany, he met and married his wife, Barbara, and the couple had two children, Jenny and Justin, now 8 and 7, respectively.

“Barbara told me that the last time she spoke with Marc, he asked to speak with Jenny,” Arizmendez’s mother, Amelia Arizmendez of Anaheim, recalled last week. “He told her, ‘You know, honey, sometimes daddies don’t come back, or they come back different.’”

Arizmendez, 30, was among three soldiers who died of wounds suffered July 6 when insurgents attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device in Qalat, Afghanistan, southwest of Kabul.

Those closest to Arizmendez remember him as a devoted father and ardent snowboarder with a wry smile and love of tinkering with vehicles.

“As a boy, he was a little fighter, a rabble rouser — and smart,” his mother said. “He loved to take apart his toys, especially the trucks, and put them back together again.”

In the seventh grade, “one of my son’s friends warned that he was going to be jumped into a gang,” she said. “I immediately had him enrolled into St. Catherine’s Military Academy in Anaheim, where he attended seventh and eighth grades.”

He graduated from Schurr High School in Montebello in 1998 and went on to enroll in the automotive technology certificate program at Fullerton College. He and his sister, Jackie, hoped to open a VW repair service in Anaheim.

“He got his first Volkswagen when he was 16; it’s a white Beetle and it’s still in my garage,” his mother said. “Eventually, he had quite a collection: a 1965 VW bus, two more Beetles and a Golf.”

Neighbor Michael Valenti smiled as he recalled listening to “Marc sawing and hammering away at those wrecks in the backyard all night and day, taking them apart and putting them back together.

“Before he joined the Army, I suggested he go into the Air Force,” Valenti said. “But he had his mind made up. He felt being in the Army, and stationed in Germany, would be a perfect fit, given his love of Volkswagens.”

Army officials, however, told the young man that he would not get his first choice of assignments unless he achieved top marks in boot camp, those close to him said. “He came up with perfect scores,” his mother said. “He was stationed in Germany and assigned to a motor pool.”

His decision earlier this year to sign up for a tour in Afghanistan came as a surprise to many friends and family.

“I said, ‘You’ve been in the Army 11 years, including one year in Iraq, and you have a family — why do this?’” his mother said. “He said, ‘Mom, it’s my job.’ ”

Arizmendez was buried Aug. 11 at Arlington National Cemetery.

In addition to his wife, children and mother, Arizmendez is survived by his father, Albert; and siblings Al, George, Ada and Jackie.

louis.sahagun@latimes.com