U.S. Army Sgt. Isaac John Gayo was one of the nine soldiers killed in aduring a night training exercise over Trigg County, Ky., March 29, 2023. Gayo’s remains are expected to arrive at the Los Angeles International Airport, Monday, April 17, for burial at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. (Defense Department)
(Tribune News Service) — Army Sgt. Isaac John Gayo checked in daily with his sister to hear her voice.
“He always wanted to make sure everything was fine,” Margaritta Gayo said of her younger brother. “He was a very kind person, always had a smile on his face, and wanted to help.”
He’d also send photos before flights aboard one of the 101st Airborne Division’s Black Hawk helicopters, for which he worked as a maintenance chief.
Including on March 29, when Gayo, 27, of Los Angeles, was one of nine soldiers killed during a night training exercise over Trigg County, Ky. The accident occurred when the helicopter Gayo rode in crashed with another Black Hawk. An investigation into the accident is still ongoing.
“I talked with him that morning, and he was just checking in,” Margaritta Gayo said. “He didn’t tell me he was working at night. I just thought he was flying during the day.”
Tonight, April 17, at 5 p.m., Gayo’s remains are expected to arrive at the Los Angeles International Airport for burial at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. Community members and first responders, including from Los Angeles-area police and fire agencies, are expected to line the streets in tribute to the fallen soldier. The procession to the cemetery will be led by motorcyclists from the Patriot Guard.
“It’s important to the family that they can see that the community cares,” said Laura Herzog, who operates Honoring Our Fallen and is working with the Army’s casualty care officer on the arrangements to bring Gayo home. “It is our job as parents, grandparents and the community to honor sacrifice. We need to gather in solidarity, no matter what the differences, and honor the men and women in the military and the first responders.”
Gayo, who moved to California with his family from the Philippines in 2012, had learned just the week before the fatal crash that he would go to flight school and start working to become a pilot, his family said.
“That was his dream,” his sister said. “My father wanted to become a pilot and now my brother was doing it.”
Tragically, also on the day of his death, Margaritta Gayo, 30, received the paperwork closing on the sale of the condominium she and her brother were purchasing in Los Angeles together. Gayo, a housekeeping supervisor, said the siblings were incredibly close, the two regularly traveled together and loved eating new foods.
Gayo said her brother studied computer engineering in the Phillippines before the family moved to the United States. Then, when they arrived, first living in Pasadena briefly, her brother did what he could to help the family out. He worked three jobs at one point, including at a local market, Universal Studios and the Los Angeles Unified School District, she said.
Gayo enlisted in the Army in 2019, attending basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., and then took advanced individual training at Fort Eustis, Va.
His awards and decorations include the U.S. Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal and the Overseas Service Ribbon.
Margarrita Gayo and family members attended a military service held by her brother’s unit in Fort Campbell on April 6. The somber event included a visit to the crash site, she said, adding the most painful part of the experience was listening to the last roll call where the names of the soldiers who are fallen are called out to no response.
He will be buried later in the week.
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