Staff Sgt. Victor Cortes graduated from Central High in 1995. He has been in the U.S. Army for 11 years and was chief mechanic. He loved his daughter, playing soccer and his car. He was preceded in death by his maternal grandfather, Walter Jozefczyk. Paternal Grandparents Victor M. and Emilce Cortes Sr. Survivors include his mother, Patricia A. Herrick, stepfather Dale A Herrick of Erie and his father, Victor M. Cortes, Jr. stepmother Maria M. Cortes of Erie; his daughter, Keira Ryleigh Cortes and her loving mother, Holly S. Pearson, of Elizabethtown, Ky.; a sister, Nicole Cortes, Erie: five brothers, Shawn Baumbaugh of Erie, and Keith Baumbaugh of Jacksonville, Fla., Gustavo, Franklin and Francisco Cortes Siles of Costa Rica Central America.; his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth A. Jozefczyk of Erie, Burial was with full military honors. My daughter and her husband knew Cortes while at Fort Stewert and in Iraq. He was 29.

Army
703rd Forward Support Battalion,
3rd Infantry Division
Fort Stewart, Ga.

Staff Sgt. Victor Cortes graduated from Central High in 1995. He has been in the U.S. Army for 11 years and was chief mechanic. He loved his daughter, playing soccer and his car. He was preceded in death by his maternal grandfather, Walter Jozefczyk. Paternal Grandparents Victor M. and Emilce Cortes Sr. Survivors include his mother, Patricia A. Herrick, stepfather Dale A Herrick of Erie and his father, Victor M. Cortes, Jr. stepmother Maria M. Cortes of Erie; his daughter, Keira Ryleigh Cortes and her loving mother, Holly S. Pearson, of Elizabethtown, Ky.; a sister, Nicole Cortes, Erie: five brothers, Shawn Baumbaugh of Erie, and Keith Baumbaugh of Jacksonville, Fla., Gustavo, Franklin and Francisco Cortes Siles of Costa Rica Central America.; his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth A. Jozefczyk of Erie, Burial was with full military honors. My daughter and her husband knew Cortes while at Fort Stewert and in Iraq. He was 29.

Army
703rd Forward Support Battalion,
3rd Infantry Division
Fort Stewart, Ga.