After seven months in the Iraqi desert, Molina and the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment returned home in September to the Marine base in the desert at Twentynine Palms.

Molina said it was great to get home and celebrated with a ham and pineapple pizza from Rocky's Pizza, something he had missed while gone.

His active service ends in a month and a half, and he plans to return home to Sunnyvale, where many of his friends and family are, to start school. He will remain on inactive duty for four years and could be called back into service.

When Molina first left for Iraq, his father, Frank Molina—a veteran of the Vietnam War who served in South Korea—feared that his son would meet with the same anti-soldier sentiment he did when he returned home. But the younger Molina said he has not seen that reaction from the public.

"I get a lot of positive reactions and comments from the regular people out there, but for my dad, it wasn't that way, it was the opposite," Molina said. "If I'm having a bad day, and I hear someone say something supportive, it changes my whole attitude."

Looking back on Iraq, Molina said he is glad he went and glad he experienced what he did, because while times were hard, the friendships he made and the things he witnessed will be with him forever.

"It was definitely a good experience. Everything wasn't always good, but you take all the different aspects of it and make the best of it," Molina said. "But it was crazy; we got to see a lot of stuff."

While in Iraq, Molina said, his unit stayed mobile for much of the time, always on the go, riding through the desert, searching vehicles, inspecting homes for weapons or explosives and trying to help the Iraqis around him.

"I remember one car we pulled over with a father and his son. They let us search their car, and when we were done, and they were clear, one of the Marines with me gave them some toys, just to try to show there were no hard feelings," Molina said.

He said his unit swept through Fallujah a few times, raiding houses, searching for enemy soldiers and weapons—especially "improvised explosive devices," the type that killed Sunnyvale soldier Bumrok Lee earlier this year.

At times during patrols, the troops took Iraqi interpreters, combat photographers and reporters with them in their vehicles.

"It must have been hard for [any Iraqis with us], because the Iraqis we were fighting against looked at those guys as traitors, and they wanted to shoot them before they shot us," Molina said.

To pass time between patrols and duty, Molina and many of his unit read and wrote letters home, and those lucky enough to have the games played Nintendo Game Boy Advance. Molina—who once asked his parents to send him his Sony PlayStation video-game console—said he played Madden NFL 2005 against his fellow soldiers or played the war-simulator Advance Wars. He laughed when thinking about playing an animated war game while on downtime during an actual war and said that the soldiers would often laugh when talking about the strategies used in the game.

When he comes home from Twentynine Palms, Molina said he wants to begin school to become a firefighter and may do that in Tracy where his immediate family lives. He'll be there on Veterans Day, relaxing with family and friends, but he said his thoughts will be divided between enjoying the people around him and remembering all the people he knows who won't be.

"I wish the best for all the families who lost their children," he said.