{"id":20221,"date":"2024-03-29T14:19:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T20:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/?casualty=bonifacio-jr-jerry-lee"},"modified":"2024-05-11T00:05:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T06:05:22","slug":"bonifacio-jr-jerry-lee","status":"publish","type":"casualty","link":"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/?casualty=bonifacio-jr-jerry-lee","title":{"rendered":"Bonifacio Jr., Jerry Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Date<\/strong>: 10\/10\/2005<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rank<\/strong>: Staff Sergeant<\/p>\n<p><strong>Branch<\/strong>: U.S. Army<\/p>\n<p><strong>Operation<\/strong>: Operation Iraqi Freedom<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"565\" height=\"727\" data-id=\"25451\" src=\"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/SSGT-Jerry-L-Bonifacio-Jr.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/SSGT-Jerry-L-Bonifacio-Jr.png 565w, https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/SSGT-Jerry-L-Bonifacio-Jr-233x300.png 233w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 565px) 100vw, 565px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>SSGT. Jerry L. Bonifacio Jr. was killed by a car bomb Oct. 10, 2005 in Baghdad. He was assigned to Bravo Company, 1<sup>st<\/sup> Battalion, 184<sup>th<\/sup> Infantry Regiment in the Bay Area city of Dublin. Before his deployment to Iraq earlier this year, he served in Kuwait and in the Sinai Peninsula. Posthumously promoted to staff sergeant, Bonifacio was a squad leader, mortar man and dismount team leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jerry bore a striking resemblance to Jerry Mathers, the actor who played Beaver in the 1950s television sitcom \u201cLeave It to Beaver.\u201d Many of his friends, in fact, called him \u201cBeaver.\u201d Carol Dummer recalls him as a quiet teenager who would come in to wash dishes and do other chores around his grandparents\u2019 homey corner caf\u00e9. \u201cHe was always as helpful as anyone could be,\u201d said Dummer. Nathan Padilla, owner of Gamewarden Comics shop, said Bonifacio would spend hours in his shop when he was home on leave. \u201cHe\u2019s been a customer here for years really into comics like \u2018Conan,\u2019 \u2018Tomb Raider,\u2019 \u2018X-Men,\u2019 \u2018New Avengers,\u2019 \u2018Wolverine\u2019 and \u2018Witchblade,\u2019 Padilla said. \u201cHe was a hero before the war,\u201d said Tammy Lambert-Diaz, Bonifacio\u2019s godmother. \u201cHe always found the good in everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is survived by his parents Jerry and Anna Bonifacio; sister Esther and brother; John; his grandparents, Elizabeth and Hope Steele; and his only nephew, Nathan R. Bonifacio. He is also survived by several aunts, uncles, cousins, and his fianc\u00e9, Michelle Baptiste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"casualty-operation":[100],"casualty-tag":[106],"class_list":["post-20221","casualty","type-casualty","status-publish","hentry","casualty-operation-operation-iraqi-freedom","casualty-tag-idaho-casualty"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/casualty\/20221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/casualty"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/casualty"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/casualty\/20221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25452,"href":"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/casualty\/20221\/revisions\/25452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"casualty-operation","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcasualty-operation&post=20221"},{"taxonomy":"casualty-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idahofieldofheroes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcasualty-tag&post=20221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}