 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The New Mexico National Guard said a 39-year-old soldier deployed to Iraq has died after a heart attack. 
Spc. Joseph L.
Gallegos of Questa died Wednesday in Tallil, Iraq. He was a vehicle
mechanic with the 720th Transportation Company out of Las Vegas, N.M.
About 130 members of the unit left New Mexico on May 14 for training before deploying to Iraq in July.
Gallegos served in the Navy and Army before recently joining the National Guard after a five-year break in military service.
==Another news story==
The Associated Press --When he was a boy, Joseph Gallegos once found a hawk with a broken wing, nursed it back to health, and let it go.
When
he was working for the U.S. Forest Service in 2007, Gallegos came
across a burning truck, saw a man inside and pulled him to safety.
Gallegos — the lifesaver — took jobs as a firefighter, an ambulance
driver and a policeman. He served four years in the active Army. Later, he joined the New Mexico National Guard. "He
was always taking different jobs, but they always put him in the
service of others," said the guardsman's brother Donald Gallegos. "He
was always very proud of the fact that he was serving." While
serving in Tallil, Iraq, Gallegos died Oct. 28 of a heart attack. He
was a vehicle mechanic with the 720th Transportation Company out of Las
Vegas, N.M. He was 39 years old. The youngest in a family of four
girls and two boys, Gallegos was raised in Questa, N.M., by his
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Adonario Gallegos. Gallegos graduated from
Questa High School, and roomed with his cousin Jamie Archuleta at New
Mexico Highlands University in the mid-1990s. "He was very smart,
one of the most intelligent guys I ever knew. He was also a caring guy,
he cared about most everyone," Archuleta said. | 
