 FresnoBee.com -- A Fresno father of three and staff sergeant with Fresno's Army Reserve depot died in Kuwait during a training drill Sunday, the U.S. Army confirmed Tuesday.
 Jose Carlos Rangel was 43 and a veteran of Operation Desert Storm 14 years ago.
He was assigned to the 1106th Aviation Classification Repair Activity Depot in Fresno, where he worked full-time overseeing the tool room.
Sunday, he was running as part of a training drill when he told fellow soldiers that he was not feeling well and collapsed, said his wife of 13 years, Noemi Rangel of Fresno. He was taken to the base hospital at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Jose Rangel died after 45 minutes of efforts to revive him failed. Born in Mexico, Rangel was the youngest of 10 children. His family moved to Stockton when he was 13.
At 19, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps after earning dual citizenship.
He was deployed to Kuwait in December after returning from Fort Lewis, Wash., in October and spending six weeks in Fresno with his family.
Members of his unit were placed on the front lines in Baghdad, Iraq, soon after they arrived, but Rangel had not been sent to the war zone. His job was in a hazardous materials unit.
The family learned of Rangel's death Sunday afternoon when they arrived home from St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Fresno and found an Air Force chaplain and Army sergeant parked outside the family's northwest Fresno home.
"I told my mom something was wrong," Noemi Rangel recalled.
Relatives gathered in the family's home Tuesday night and remembered a man dedicated to his family and country.
In his free time, Jose Rangel had enjoyed playing with his three boys, Randy, 11, and Michael, 7, who both attend Steinbeck Elementary School, and Andrew, 2.
Noemi Rangel said the family last spoke with him by phone Saturday.
"He said it was raining but that he was all right," she said.
Rangel said the way her husband died took her by surprise because he was an avid jogger and regularly worked out at Bally's gym when he was in Fresno.
Jose Rangel was three years from getting to 20 years of military service and qualifying for a retirement pension.
"He said he wanted to buy a place in Ensenada and retire there," Noemi Rangel said.
Funeral services are under the direction of Lisle Funeral Home in Fresno. | 
I would like to say thank you for your service and sacrifice for our Country, not just in OIF, but in Desert Storm as well. And to your family, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy.
Semper Fi Devil Dog!