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VFW Saipan to host candlelit vigil for Manglona
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Posted on Oct 20 2008
The Veterans of Foreign Wars is inviting the public to join its members in a candlelight vigil to pay respect for Staff Sgt. Julian Manglona, whose body will be flown in Thursday morning at the Saipan International Airport.
VFW Saipan Post 3457 Commander Mariano Fajardo said that Manglona’s body would arrive from Japan via Northwest Airlines flight 100. The exact arrival time is 1:20am Oct. 23.
“We are informing the community to join us and the family and friends of Sgt. Manglona to show respect for him,” Fajardo said in a telephone interview yesterday.
He said the candlelight vigil will be held along Airport Road, like in the past when the VFW did similar shows of respects for soldiers from the CNMI who were killed in Iraq.
“I know it would be too early in the morning for all of us but we want them to join us,” Fajardo urged.
Manglona collapsed during a 6-mile run as part of his training at Fort Hood, Texas, before deployment to Kuwait. He later died at a nearby hospital. He was 39.
Manglona, a reserve officer for the 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the United States Army, left Saipan in July this year after being called to active duty.
Manglona, who hails from Tinian, had previously served in the Middle East. His scheduled trip to Kuwait would have been his second in the region.
He re-enlisted in the Army in 2004.
He returned to the CNMI, two years later in 2006 and became a police officer.
