This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
SOUTH OGDEN — On U.S. Army Cpl Raphael Arruda's 22nd birthday this Saturday, there will be a big party near his home in South Ogden. Welcomed by balloons, guests will share lots of laughs and stories about the guy who always made people smile.
It is what Arruda, who died Saturday in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan, would want, said his mother, Carmen Tercia Possche of Sandy.
"He would be very angry if he sees people cry for him," Possche said Monday. "He would say 'No! Don't do that!' The body goes but the spirit lives."
Arruda, a native of Brazil, died of blunt force trauma suffered when the mine-protected vehicle he was in was struck by a roadside bomb in the Bar Kunar District of Kunar province. He and other soldiers were enroute between two bases. No one else was killed. He was the third Utah serviceman killed in Afghanistan this month.
Arruda, a 2008 graduate of Bonneville High School, was a member of the U.S. Army Reserves 744th Engineering Company, 2nd Platoon, which deployed from Ogden last fall and is due back home in late September or early October.
His job was to clear Afghan roads of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and he had only a couple more missions to complete, said his brother, Andrey Arruda. The two chatted via Facebook before Arruda left on his last mission on Saturday, Andrey Arruda said.
Arruda had expected to finish those missions and then attend classes and debriefings before returning to Utah.
"He was almost done," said Andrey Arruda, who followed his brother into the Army Reserves.
Andrey Arruda, 19, is in an Ogden-based medical unit, which deployed just as he finished basic training. He has not yet been to a war zone; it was Arruda's first deployment.
Andrey Arruda said their father was in Brazil, where his mother recently died, when the news came. He is expected to return to Utah this week. The soldier is also survived by an older brother in Brazil, a step-mother, step-brother and a step-sister, all Utah residents.
Arruda was raised in Brazil until he was 12, when the family emigrated to the United States. They lived briefly in Rhode Island before moving to South Salt Lake and then South Ogden.
Arruda had never talked of joining the military while young, his brother said. "He would say 'That's just for crazy people.'"
But perhaps pictures of their older brother in uniform — he was in ROTC in high school — inspired him. An avid soccer player, Arruda joined the Army Reserves while still a student at Bonneville High. He left for basic training just days after graduating in 2008. He was trained as a combat engineer.
Arruda worked as a server at a Brazilian restaurant in Layton, and attended Weber State University for one semester, his brother said.
The two — who messaged back and forth almost daily — were planning to get an apartment in Salt Lake City this fall and enroll at the University of Utah. Arruda, who was always into building plans, wanted to study construction engineering and Andrey Arruda wanted to start pre-med studies.
"It was going to be fun," the younger brother said.
The two also had planned to invest in real estate in Brazil and, together, build a summer home there as well as build other homes for sale. "He had a lot of plans."
His brother, Andrey Arruda said, "liked having fun. He really enjoyed making people laugh. He would always lighten up the mood wherever he was."
He was an inactive member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his brother said.
Funeral plans are on hold until Raphael Arruda's body is returned to Utah.
Andrey Arruda already was planning the 22nd birthday party on Saturday for his brother. Now, it will be a celebration of his life, Andrey Arruda said.
"I told him this would be dangerous for him, but he wanted to go and I can respect that because he loved the country and he wanted to serve," said the soldier's mother. "I'm happy that he was doing what he loved."
Remembering Utah's fallen