{"id":135494,"date":"2025-05-27T08:52:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T08:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/135494\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T08:52:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T08:52:17","slug":"honoring-fallen-heroes-like-michael-barrera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/135494\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring fallen heroes like Michael Barrera"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOMERSET, Texas<\/strong> \u2013 Flying high above his headstone are the flags Michael Barrera fought to protect. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur flag doesn\u2019t wave with the wind, it waves with the breath of every young man, young women, men, women who have died protecting it,\u201d Hilda Guardiola, his mother, said. <\/p>\n

Barrera died in 2003 while serving his country in Iraq. His story is one of thousands being remembered on Memorial Day. <\/p>\n

Guardiola said Memorial Day is a time \u201cto remember all those who gave their life to protect our freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guardiola and her husband spent Monday next to Michael, at a cemetery near Somerset. Others, like Tom Cole, used memories to remember friends and loved ones. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the 10 or 15 guys that I was with that died over in Vietnam, and I keep it with me,\u201d Cole said while reading a piece of note paper he unfolded from his pocket.<\/p>\n

Fred Alvarado is a Vietnam veteran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost so many guys out there, and we\u2019re all young,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cI don\u2019t want those guys to be forgotten.\u201d <\/p>\n

Remembering those who served the country doesn\u2019t stop after Memorial Day. Somerset ISD named an elementary school<\/a> after Barrera. Guardiola said she\u2019s proud of her son\u2019s legacy after his death. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not tears of sadness, they\u2019re tears of joy that his memory is still alive,\u201d Guardiola said. <\/p>\n

Read also:<\/b><\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOMERSET, Texas \u2013 Flying high above his headstone are the flags Michael Barrera fought to protect. \u201cOur flag…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[55650,2597,59406,1474,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-135494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-memorial-day","9":"tag-military","10":"tag-san-antonio","11":"tag-somerset","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114578951104006440","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}