BROWNSVILLE - Pfc. Kristian Menchaca was buried with full military honors Wednesday, after an emotional funeral attended by hundreds of Rio Grande Valley residents saddened and angered by his death.

Menchaca, 23, the youngest son of a Mexican immigrant family, was one of three U.S. Army soldiers killed in Iraq after insurgents attacked their outpost June 16. His brutalized body was found three days later, booby-trapped with explosives and tied to another slain soldier.

''It was very sad that it had to happen like that," said Tomas Peña, a high school teacher and Vietnam veteran who drove across the Valley from Edinburg to attend the services.

Menchaca, the 20th soldier from the Valley to die in Iraq or Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was born in Houston but spent most of his youth in Brownsville.

Bishop Raymundo Peña, head of the Brownsville Catholic diocese, led a bilingual funeral Mass with 12 yellow-robed priests. He said the young soldier had ''volunteered to put himself in harm's way ."

Peña described Menchaca as a loving and caring husband, as well as a devoted son. He recalled that the soldier used his last two-week leave in May to visit his mother, Maria Vasquez, at her home in Brownsville, and his wife, Christina, 18, in Big Spring.

''News reports about the circumstances of Kris' death in Iraq could lead us to an unholy rage and anger, but that would only dishonor Kristian's very name and Kristian himself," Peña said. "In his honor, at this moment, we must, as he did, reach for the ideal: to work for peace and an end to conflict wherever we may find it — at home, on the streets or even in a foreign land.

"Did those who took Kristian's life know him? Did they know that this generous young man was there to serve and help people and not to injure them?"

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Christopher Tucker, who heads the Operational Test Command at Fort Hood, expressed condolences to Menchaca's family on behalf of top Army officials.

During the service, Army personnel read the citations for the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and POW medals that Menchaca was awarded after the June firefight and his capture. Menchaca, who enlisted in March 2005, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky.

Many who attended Menchaca's services are veterans or have children who are serving in the military.

''It's important for the community to honor our military personnel," said Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia, whose son is a Marine corporal who has served in Iraq.

Though Garcia said it was fitting to attend funeral services, the community ''should honor them when they are here, when they see them in uniform or at the airport.

''Honor them when they are alive," Garcia said.

After the funeral at the Brownsville Events Center, several hundred mourners made the 2-mile trek to the Buena Vista cemetery.

The route was lined with firefighters and people clutching American flags and holding caps across their chest. Then they encircled the burial site beneath the modest shade offered by flanking oak trees.

As bells from a nearby church tolled at noon, Menchaca was laid to rest after Catholic and military burial rites. A pair of buglers played taps. Bagpipers offered Amazing Grace. The 101st Airborne Funeral Detachment fired a rifle salute.

As family members laid white roses on Menchaca's polished wooden casket, his widow leaned against it with both arms and wailed. Moments later, as the casket was lowered into the ground, his mother, Maria Vasquez, sobbed.

"Why my son?" she repeated again and again in Spanish. "No, no. My little son. Why? Why? Why?"

Rachel Ayala, a friend who spoke for the family, offered thanks for the tremendous outpouring of solidarity offered by Brownsville residents. Many of the hundreds who attended the funeral did not know Menchaca or his family.

"There is no way to express our thanks to the community for their support," Ayala said at the gravesite. "I just want to remind this nation that Kristian may have died in hatred, but his spirit lives on in love."

james.pinkerton@chron.commike.tolson@chron.com