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July 11, 2007

Two-month vigil planned for missing soldier

Yadira Betances

LAWRENCE | Thinking of his son going without food and possibly being tortured is a nightmare Andy Jimenez hopes will soon come to an end.

Tomorrow will be two months since Army Spc. Alex Jimenez, 25, and two other soldiers were taken prisoner and disappeared after an ambush 20 miles south of Baghdad.

Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., also remains missing, but the third soldier, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif., was found dead in the Euphrates River on May 23. Four other U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed in the May 12 ambush.

A vigil is planned for tomorrow from 7 to 10 p.m. on Albion Street, where Andy Jimenez, 53, lives, to mark the two months since the ambush.

"These two months have been like an eternity," Andy Jimenez said. "They've been very difficult, waiting, not knowing where he is, how he is doing."

Francisco Urena, director of the veterans affairs office in Lawrence, said it's important to keep news of missing soldiers in the news.

"If it was anybody else's son, we would do the same thing," Urena said. "It helps remind us we are still supporting his family," Urena said.

"I feel a piece of me was torn apart when he went missing," Andy Jimenez said. "My life won't be complete until I see him again. Just listening to his voice on the telephone would be enough for me."

Andy Jimenez has returned to his construction job, occasionally visits friends and attends Mass | but thoughts of Alex are ever present in his mind.

After coming home from work one day last week, he played an audiotape he made welcoming Alex from Korea. In it, a joyous Andy acted as the master of ceremonies and even belted out a few tunes in honor of his son.

Today, the short, balding man whom friends describe as a once jovial character who loved to tell jokes, sing karaoke and was even learning to play guitar, is a shadow of his former self.

After returning from work, he spends most of his time at home looking over pictures of Alex as a youngster and Alex in his military uniform and reading postcards his son sent from Iraq and Korea.

"Looking at some of the pictures, it seems like he's looking back at me," said Jimenez, his eyes welling up with tears.

"When he enlisted, this was the last thing I thought would happen to him," Jimenez said. "I have hope that he will be found alive and if he does, I pray to God to give Alex long life so he can enjoy what he has missed."

Area residents have rallied around Jimenez and his family by sending letters of support, posting POW/MIA flags on their porches and yellow ribbons on schools around the city.

"It's been torture for everyone," said Nereyda Fernandez, who is married to Alex's cousin. "It's been awful, especially not knowing if he is OK. But seeing his mother and talking to her gives me strength."

Fernandez has a POW flag outside her house in Haverhill.

"To me that's so strong," said Fernandez, a waitress at Jimmy's II in Methuen. "This flag is not just for Alex, it's for people who have been lost or others who have been taken and will never come home."

Since May 12, Andy Jimenez has had trouble sleeping.

He usually wakes at 4 a.m. to pray, then turns on the television hoping to catch any new developments on the whereabouts of his son. He then gets out of bed at 6 a.m. to start his day as a construction worker. "You don't know what you have until you lose it," Andy said. "I feel I didn't spend enough time with Alex. When I see him again, we need to catch up on so much.

Meanwhile in Queens, N.Y., Alex's mother, Maria del Rosario Duran, is going through her own roller coaster of emotions.

Duran continues to host nightly prayer services at home and light candles on the makeshift altar she has set up at home. People have rallied around Jimenez's family, offering support.

"I no longer feel Alex is my son, he belongs to all of us," Andy said. "Their support gives me strength. It gives me faith. I could not have dealt with this ordeal without their support."

U.S. Army Spc. Jon Stras of Andover was one of the soldiers looking for Jimenez and Fouty.

"Unfortunately, he's no longer involved in the search," said Stras' mother, Anne Chay, who explained her son was only on the rescue mission for two weeks. "They certainly have a commitment to all the soldiers and were disappointed not to find the missing two."

Chay, a math teacher at Lawrence High School, added, "He knew the Lawrence connection and it was an added incentive for him."

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