Staff Sergeant Moya’s Mortal Remains Return to Spain

The ministress awards the Cross of Merit in the red division (Photo:Ignacio Mohedano/Army Communication Department)

The deceased’s fellow 5th Light Infantry Brigade soldiers bear the coffin (Photo:Ignacio Mohedano/Army Communication Department)

The Staff sergeant’s mortal remains arrive on Torrejón Base(Photo:Ignacio Mohedano/Army Communication Department)

Staff Sergeant Joaquín Moya Espejo’s mortal remains were repatriated yesterday, 7th October, aboard an Air Force aircraft, on which the ministress of Defence and the Joint Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Force General José J. Rodríguez also travelled. On the Torrejón Air Base (Madrid) relatives and friends of the deceased were awaiting, accompanied by the Interior minister, Mr. Antonio Camacho, the president of the Madrid Autonomous Community, Ms. Esperanza Aguirre, and the Chief of the Army Staff, Army General Coll, among other civilian and military authorities.

A King’s Immemorial 1st Infantry Regiment Company was in charge of paying the official honours. The 1st sergeant’s coffin, covered with the Spanish Flag, was borne on the shoulders of his fellow soldiers from 5th Light Infantry Brigade ‘San Marcial’. Following this, the military archbishop, monsignor Juan del Río, officiated a brief religious ceremony in which he had words of comfort and strength for Staff Sergeant Joaquín Moya’s relatives, and he described him as a ‘courageous man and a selfless soldier’, as well he told them, ‘He has not died, he is alive; he lives on in our hearts, he lives in our memory and he lives in the resurrection and in the peace of the righteous’.

The ministress of Defence posthumously awarded the Cross of Military Merit in the red division to Staff Sergeant Moya. Then, the commander of the 5th Light Infantry Brigade, General Carlos A. Terol, presented the Flag, the medal and the deceased’s head gear to his relatives, and to conclude, his fellow soldiers again bore the coffin on their shoulders, this time to place it into the hearse. Staff Sergeant Joaquín Moya will be buried in Córdoba, his hometown.

Ceremony in Herat

Some hours earlier in Heart, the ministress of Defence and the Joint Chief of the Defence Staff had presided over a ceremony officiated by the base chaplain. Italian General Luciano Portolano, commander of Regional Command West, posthumously awarded the deceased the NATO medal. The ministress conveyed to the Spanish force in Afghanistan a message of support, admiration and gratitude on behalf of His Majesty the King.