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Scott Huddleston
Express-News Staff Writer
On Mother's Day, at about 6 a.m., Marine Sgt. Aaron Cepeda Sr.'s wife got a call on her cell phone.
The caller identified himself as a member of the Marine Corps, Ella Cepeda recalled. He said there had been an accident but couldn't tell her the details over the phone. He asked her to come to the front door.
Two Marines in full dress uniforms were standing there, on the same 10-acre spread in Elmendorf where Aaron Cepeda had helped build his family's two-story house, swam in their pool and gone fishing with his son at a stocked pond.
It was supposed to be where he'd raise his children while chasing his dream of becoming a cardiovascular surgeon.
The Marines had news that put those plans to rest. Cepeda, 22, was one of two San Antonio Marine reservists killed late Saturday by a suicide bomber in a car in Anbar province, Iraq.
The other, Lance Cpl. Lance T. Graham, 26, had kidded with Cepeda when they visited Las Vegas before deploying that he was too young to be giving orders.
"So I'm being pushed around by a 22-year-old?" Graham quipped, Cepeda's wife recalled.
Playful taunting was at the core of their bond. Graham was a Madison High School graduate and Texas Longhorns fan. Cepeda had gone to Health Careers High School and was an Aggie, with a pre-med degree from Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi.
In Iraq, however, in the 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment, 4th Marine Division, they were like family. Cepeda's parents would send $60 worth of jerky in a care package, and it would be gone in a day, since he'd share it with Graham and others in his unit.
They ate together, and on Saturday they died together.
Cepeda's son, Aaron Jr., turns 5 Thursday. Hearing him say "my daddy's dead" or "he says he's going to come back" was tough enough for relatives.
But when he said, "Mom, I told Daddy not to get on the bus, but he did," recalling that day in January at San Antonio's Marine Reserve center, that might have been the hardest.
"What I hate is that it'll be a closed coffin," said the Marine's father, Michael Cepeda Sr.
As a former helicopter pilot in Vietnam, Michael Cepeda Sr. knows a person in uniform doesn't question a government's reasons for a war. Yet he had urged his son to come home a few weeks ago after a mortar round threw him 10 feet, injuring his back and leaving him deaf in one ear.
His son could have returned, Michael Cepeda said, and had the church wedding he'd longed for.
He could've studied at the University of Texas Health Science Center, which called his wife Monday to say he'd been accepted at the medical school. He could have raised little "A.J." and Journee, his 16-month-old daughter, on the wooded acreage he would've inherited, where he'd lived all his life.
But the Marines' motto is semper fidelis always faithful. He stayed in Iraq and hoped to return to San Antonio with his buddies in the fall.
"I told him to be careful about cars, to shoot and ask questions later," his father said. "But he didn't want to get into trouble. If he saw a car zig-zagging and could sense danger, he didn't know if he should shoot or not."
Funeral arrangements are pending with Angelus Funeral Home. A service and burial are planned at St. Anthony's Church in Elmendorf.
Aaron Cepeda also is survived by his mother, Diana Cepeda, and an older brother, Michael Jr.
Though Aaron was fit and athletic, he was preceded in death in recent years by two younger brothers who were disabled and in poor health. His father long has suspected the effects of his exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam.
Aaron's strength, intellect and drive always defied that notion.
"He was my pride and joy," Michael Cepeda Sr. said.
Ella Cepeda, who recently turned 24, received a birthday card from her husband over the weekend.
Now, the family will have to prepare for Aaron Jr.'s birthday, just a few days before they bury his daddy.
There's actually a group for the UTHSCSA Class of 2009 if you went/grad from UTAustin. 
