Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Family, friends mourn Texas State U. alumnus killed in Iraq
By David Saleh Rauf
The University Star (Texas State U.-San Marcos)
01/18/2007

(U-WIRE) SAN MARCOS, Texas — Before returning home for the holidays, Spc. Yari Mokri planned on giving his shoes to an Iraqi soldier who played soccer barefoot — an act that family and friends say embodied Mokri’s compassion and positive attitude toward life.

Mokri, a Texas State alumus, never had the chance to give that Iraqi soldier his shoes.

On Dec. 6, Mokri, 26, and four other U.S. soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle in Hawijah, Iraq, about 175 miles north of Baghdad.

“We are planning to send a pair of shoes to be given to that soldier on behalf of Yari,” his mother, Donna Mokri said. “He would have done that himself.”

The Pflugerville High School graduate’s “soulful smile” — which was ever present during the war — lives on in the memories of those who knew him. His mother said she remembers as a child, he had a sense of humor — an element of his character that was maintained throughout his life.

Growing up, Mokri and his brother, Maziar, impersonated Saturday Night Live bodybuilding characters Hans and Frans. As he got older, his mother said he impersonated Chris Farley characters.

“People would gravitate toward him,” she said. “He had a real upbeat attitude and great smile. He would find humor in things.”

Mokri could converse in Farsi and German. He ate five mini-meals a day, went to the gym regularly and loved baking cookies.

“Sometimes I would mix the dough, and he would be in charge of the oven, because I have a tendency to burn the bottom of the cookies,” she said.

Married in a private ceremony before his deployment, Mokri and his wife Andrea were planning to hold off to celebrate with family and friends until he got back. “We Belong Together” by Ritchie Valens was their song.

Mokri was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. He was deployed to Iraq in September and was scheduled to return Dec. 23.

His mother said the family is trying to move forward but doesn’t know if it will get easier with time or if they will simply learn to live around the pain. She said they are left with no choice “but to get up in the morning and do the things that need to be done. But it isn’t easy.”

“We could not celebrate any of the holidays,” she said. “We all feel really numb.”

Mokri graduated in May 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. One month after graduating, he enlisted in the Army’s counterintelligence division.

“He felt like this military experience would help him with his goal,” his mother said.

His goal was to pursue a career in law enforcement. He talked about working with the Austin Police Department, where he served as an intern in the homicide department.

“I made him get his hands dirty,” said Richard Faithful, APD detective. “It was like having an extra partner out there, but he’s doing it for free.”

On the first day of his internship, he had his car towed. The incident became the subject of good-natured ridicule for Mokri as officers drew up diagrams of no-parking zones and reenacted the scene.

“He was so focused on being on time and making a good impression that he didn’t see the no-parking signs,” Faithful said.

Over the next five years, Faithful said they developed a friendship that allowed them to “talk on other levels” about life issues, including Mokri’s enlistment into the military.

“Yari was one of these guys that just emitted goodness,” he said.

Through e-mail correspondence, Faithful said Mokri did not talk about the war much but did mention that he loved being around the kids in the Iraqi communities.

“We were tying to put together something real big to send Yari, so he can share with all his friends there,” Faithful said. “He said he pretty much didn’t need anything but what would be really cool is soccer balls and candy for the kids.”

Soccer was one of Mokri’s passions. He began playing when he was 4 years old and continued playing throughout his life.

APD officer Gilbert Cardenas met Mokri through his internship and said the two forged a strong friendship based on soccer. Mokri joined Cardenas’ indoor soccer team for a season, where he was the youngest player on the team.

“I told him we’re old, but we can use some youngsters,” Cardenas said. “He would score most of the goals on our team.”

Cardenas, who keeps a photo of Mokri on his and desk and in his patrol car, remembers the APD intern as the best young man he’s ever known. He paid a visit on Jan. 5 to Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Cemetery, where Mokri’s grave is located.

“I put a St. Michael emblem in the dirt,” Cardenas said. “I had no place to put it, so I buried it inside the dirt. He meant a lot to me.”

Possessing a gift for music, Mokri played a wide range of instruments, including trumpet, which he learned in middle school, guitar, keyboard and drums.

Darren Nothstine met Mokri six years ago at Brook Mays Music Co. store when the two struck up a conversation about a guitar. Deciding they had the same musical interests, the two started playing music together and shared a special connection. Nothstine said he considers Mokri his “musical soulmate.”

“For me he was a soulmate in the sense that we can sit down and connect through our instruments and have discussions with one another,” Nothstine said.

Nothstine describes Mokri’s musical taste as diverse. The two listened to bands such as Rush, Scorpions and a lot of Joe Satriani. He said some of Mokri’s favorite songs were “Big Bad Moon” and “Time Machine” by Joe Satriani.

“When we goofed around that’s something we played a lot of,” he said.

In years prior to Mokri being deployed to Iraq, the two performed at a New Year’s Eve party for family and friends.

“Yari was getting better and better on the drums, and I’d just sit in and play a medley of songs,” he said.

Nothstine said Mokri is somebody he expected to see and know for the rest of his life.

“We have to cope with what’s the reality of life,” he said. “To me I don’t really think of him completely in the past tense. There are so many things that we did that it permeates everything in my life.”

Mokri’s mother has the same feeling, saying subtle things can bring on a wave of memories.

“I see images of him as a little boy — something will remind me of something that he did or said. I just see him in a lot of different ways,” she said. “I see him playing the drums. I see him driving his truck, and I’m sitting in the passenger seat and he’s listening to his music, beating to the sounds of the drums.”

The Mokri family has established a memorial scholarship fund in Yari’s name at Pflugerville High school and is the process of talking with criminal justice professors to establish a scholarship through Texas State.

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