Marine Corporal Paul Fagundes died trying to save others

Marine put others first, widow says

Cynthia Marie Fagundes held her son, Cazzian, as a Marine escorted her into a Fall River church for her husband’s funeral. Corporal Paul Fagundes died July 4 in Guantanamo Bay. She is pregnant with the couple’s second child. (Kayana Szymczak for The Boston Globe)

By Alex Katz
Globe Correspondent

FALL RIVER — Cynthia Marie Fagundes mostly kept her head down yesterday — before her was the casket holding her 29-year-old husband.

Sitting beneath a tent at Notre Dame Cemetery, she suddenly lifted her gaze as a voice pierced the silence. “Mommy!’’ her 2-year-old son, Cazzian, belted out. She smiled at the little boy, scooping him up onto her lap.

Together they said farewell to Corporal Paul Fagundes, who drowned July Fourth while trying to save two fellow Marines caught up in an undertow while swimming at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps about a year ago, serving a 60-day tour on an antiterrorism team that was training in Guantanamo Bay.

Mourners gathered to pay their respects to a man who always put others before himself, his widow said.

“He was an angel on earth, and now he is an angel in heaven,’’ she said during a funeral Mass at St. Anne Parish, wearing a black dress and her husband’s dog tag as she delivered the eulogy.
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Marine put others first, widow says

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U.S. Marine from Camden dies in swimming accident in Cuba
Published: Tuesday, July 13, 2010,
Military officials say a U.S. Marine from Camden has died in a swimming accident at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The military says 22-year-old Lance Cpl. Giovani "Gio" Cruz drowned while swimming off a recreational beach at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay on July 4.
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US Marine from Camden dies in swimming accident in Cuba