Family and friends gathered in Sunset Park Wednesday morning to bid farewell to a Brooklyn soldier killed in Iraq.
Twenty-two-year-old Army Specialist Michael Rivera was one of three soldiers killed March 7th by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
Army officials awarded Rivera a bronze star and purple heart and posthumously promoted him to sergeant.
Those close to Rivera remembered his good nature.
"He liked to cook, he’d play, and always helping people, always at
something in the neighborhood," said Rivera’s uncle Augustine Rivera.
"That’s why everybody loved him.""There were a lot of great testimonials given in Iraq by his
friends,” said General Todd Semonite. “They wrote back and said ‘boy
this guy was a hero, he was out there in front. He was leading the
way.’"The pall bearers included Rivera’s brother and three cousins who are all serving their country in the military.
"That’s all he did was help people out, my little brother, that’s
all he did. He was always looking to do something right. So I’m gonna
miss that a lot," said Rivera’s brother Lance Corporal Alfredo Burke."He was definitely my rock, between all my hard situations he was
always there for me,” said his cousin, Army Specialist Edward Rivera.
“And he always knew what to say."Rivera’s wife brought the couple’s daughter, Joycelin, who was born in Korea, to New York for the funeral.
"Michael was a very big part of our lives, and there is nothing
that can replace that,” said Carlos Figueroa, Rivera’s cousin. “But the
good thing is that he has his daughter here with us, and she can live
on his legacy."Rivera received a 21-gun salute before being buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
