For family, for freedom

Brian Moreno was a senior in high school on Sept. 11, 2001. Now he’s living his lifelong dream: serving his country in the military. * EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in an occasional series about former Newport-Mesa students who graduated high school after Sept. 11, 2001, and the paths they’ve taken.

COSTA MESA -- The television stays off at the house on Royal Palm Drive. At the very least, it doesn’t show the news channels, not when Hilda Moreno is home. Newspapers also land on the front lawn every morning, but she skips over the world news reports.

As the war in Iraq continues, Hilda, a self-employed housecleaner and mother of four, gets her news strictly from one source: her eldest son, Brian, who is serving in Iraq as a prison guard.

Every other day or so, Brian calls his family to let them know that he’s alive and hopeful. When the time between calls is longer than usual, unease sets in. Hilda had one of her most nerve-racking moments a few weeks back, when Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez called her house. Sanchez, a champion of military families, wanted the Morenos to send her a holiday wish list.

“The congresswoman called here to the house because she’s going to give Christmas presents to the kids,” Hilda recalled. “She called here, and my daughter called me on my cell and said, ‘Someone called you and the caller ID said, “U.S. government.”’”

“My lips were numb. Then my daughter said it was Loretta Sanchez and she was calling me back.”

Brian, 21, a 2002 graduate of Estancia High School, is the first member of his family to serve in the military.

His parents are handling the change as best they can. They have persuaded Brian’s younger brothers -- Jason, 14, and Scott, 12 -- to opt for college over the military, but they support their eldest son in his mission.

It is very much Brian’s mission. Despite coming from a family with no military background, he wanted to be in uniform since he was barely old enough to walk.

“Ever since I was a child I knew I would join the military,” Brian wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Pilot. “I chose the Marines because they provided the challenge I was looking for. The experience of 9/11 did not change my views about joining.

“It just made me want to join even more.”

Lance Cpl. Brian Moreno was a senior on Sept. 11, 2001. Others were midway through their high school careers, or just beginning the ninth grade. All together, they represent a unique generation of students. The senior class that graduated in June was the last group of high schoolers to have been in class when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, being largely affluent communities, produce a relatively small number of recruits. Sgt. Trent Lowry, public affairs director for the Marine recruiting office in Santa Ana, said graduates of central Orange County high schools rarely enlist for financial reasons.

“In this area, it’s probably more out of patriotism and a desire to be challenged,” Lowry said. “The Marine Corps is a big challenge for some people, and it would be for self-fulfillment, I would say. I don’t think in the Costa Mesa-Newport area it’s really a financial or an educational motivator, although I’m sure there are some individuals for whom that’s a factor.”

Money wasn’t a problem for the Morenos, either, at least not a significant one. Hilda and her husband, Ignatio, are self-employed -- she as a housecleaner, he with a construction business -- and they live in one of the nicer neighborhoods on Costa Mesa’s Westside.

Still, life wasn’t always comfortable for Brian growing up, and he brought some of those lessons with him into the service. About three years ago, one of his high school friends was shot and killed while collecting the mail across town, and Brian used the incident to defend his dream of enlisting to his mother.

“He said, ‘Mom, see, you don’t have to go to war,’” Hilda said. “‘They’ll kill you anyway.’”

Brian’s serves as a security guard, working 24-hour shifts and taking every other day off. Apart from the daily hardships of working in Iraq, he also puts up with loneliness and tedium -- and the pain of being separated from his family. Just months before he left for Iraq, his son, Brian Isaiah, was born. Brian also has a 4-year-old daughter.

“I do miss my family back home and I can’t wait to go back,” he wrote to the Pilot. “What keeps me going through the difficult times are the letters I receive from them, and knowing that I am keeping them safe and protecting their freedom.”

Hilda has faith -- for more than one reason -- that her son will make it back from Iraq alive. First of all, she believes that God will carry him through safely. Second, Brian is a guard and not an infantryman, and doesn’t join in firefights or patrol the streets of Baghdad.

Still, those phone calls can induce quivers back home in Costa Mesa.

“I feel worried sometimes when he calls and says there’s bombs going off,” said Jason, a freshman and a football player at Estancia. “I feel worried because I know something might happen.”

In March, Brian is due back from Iraq. Although he will stay in the Marines, his family doesn’t expect him to be redeployed. There is plenty waiting at home for his return: his children, his siblings, a house filled, for the first time, with military photos and plaques.

There is also lost time to make up. When Brian turned 21 in October, he sent his family a card he wrote in his quarters. He wrote the card at 10:30 the night before his birthday and assured his family that although he was celebrating alone, his spirits were high.

“In an hour and half it’s going to be my birthday here in Iraq,” the card read, according to Hilda. “I’m going to give a hug to myself.”20051117iq2o4sknKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Hilda Moreno’s son, Brian, is a Marine serving in Iraq as a prison guard. Brian, 21, is a graduate of Estancia High School.