Fallen Newark Marine Still Shining
By Grace Rauh, STAFF WRITER


NEWARK — With her newborn son at her side, Prabha Boyles stared across Newark Memorial High School's event center on Friday. It was the first time she had returned to her husband's alma mater since he was killed by an explosion in Iraq in September. "I entered into this building and just saw his picture," Boyles said. "I started crying. ... It's still been difficult." Her husband, Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron Boyles, was killed by an explosion in Iraq's Al Anbar Province. He died days before his 25th birthdand less than a month before his son, Brandon Aaron Boyles, was born. Students in Newark Memorial's Making a Difference club, who had a star named in his honor, presented a certificate and map showing the location of the star to Boyles' relatives at the school's Winter Assembly on Friday. Natalie Moreno helped star the club to support her brother-in-law's Marine unit in Iraq. "We wanted to give the family something," Moreno said, wiping tears from her eyes. Boyles' death left a lasting impression on Newark students, she said. It also was an emotional morning for Prabha Boyles, 25, who said she tells herself that her husband is on his way home when little Brandon won't stop crying. " He doesn't show up, and it breaks my heart," she said. The couple met at Wal-Mart in Union City, where they both worked. They were married on July 4, 2003. Boyles' stepbrother, Ademir Gallardo, graduated from Newark Memorial in 2004. After the assembly, students and teachers flocked to embrace him. Gallardo had planned to follow in his brother's footsteps and join the Marines. But he isn't going to now. His parents won't let him. Instead, he's taken on his brother's old job — caring for the family. "My job is to help," he said. " I have to help my little brother, my mom and my dad." Boyles' mother, Wanda Kealaiki, plans to display the star map in a room filled with photographs of her late son. "We're going to go look for the star," she said. "We've got to try to find it." She'll use a telescope that belonged to Boyles.