jinelson
10-03-04, 01:18 PM
Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron Boyles had hoped to be at his wife's bedside when she delivers their infant son next month. On Wednesday, the 24-year-old Bay Area Marine phoned his wife, Prabha, with bad news. His leave had been canceled because he had to stay in Iraq to fulfill "a special mission that needed to be completed," his wife recalled him saying. It would be the last time they spoke. Boyles died Friday in Iraq's Anbar province as a result of enemy action, military officials said. Boyles, a graduate of Newark Memorial High School who loved football and country music, was thrilled his wife was pregnant, Prabha Boyles said. The couple had agreed to name their son Brendon, and he is due Oct. 17, she said. "I can't believe I have to go through this without him now," she said, sobbing. Aaron Boyles has another son, 5-year-old Derrick Boyles, from a previous relationship. He lives in Oregon with his mother. Aaron Boyles spent most of his childhood living with his grandparents in Hood River, Ore., his wife said, but moved to Newark to live with his mother when he was a senior in high school. He worked at a Wal-Mart in Union City for a time after graduation, where he met his future wife. But his dream was to follow the path of both his grandfathers and join the military, she said. He enlisted in the Marines and set off for boot camp in November 2002. The couple married in Reno on July 4, 2003, and later moved to Twentynine Palms, where he was based. Prabha Boyles, 25, said the couple lived together just two months before he was deployed to Iraq. His job there was to transport Marines to their destinations, she said, and "he loved his job." "When he called me, he said he wasn't scared," she said. Boyles had recently received the Purple Heart, but he never told his wife why. "He told me there was an explosion, but he said he would wait to tell me the details until he got home," she said. "He's very protective of me. He knows I cry a lot, and he didn't want me to cry anymore."