SGT Carlo F. Eugenio, 29, an Army National Guardsman and a graduate of Etiwanda High School, died in Afghanistan on Saturday when a suicide bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul.

Eugenio is the first California National Guardsman to be killed in action during combat operations in Afghanistan.

On Monday, Eugenio’s relatives were at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to attend to the arrival of his remains. Family members returned Tuesday evening, arriving at the L.A./Ontario International Airport and greeted by the veterans group Patriot Guard Riders and family of fallen soldiers. The Eugenio family is awaiting word on when his remains will be flown to Ontario.

Four other service members and eight International Security Assistance Force civilians along with Eugenio were killed in Kabul on Saturday when the car bomb crashed into their convoy.

This was Eugenio’s second deployment as an Army soldier. His first was to Kuwait, said Eugenio’s sister Cynthia Valdez.

Valdez remembers her brother as upbeat and surrounded by friends.

“He was always happy. It took a lot for him not to be sunny,” she said. “He didn’t just know people, he had relationships with everyone.”

Eugenio was the youngest of five children. The family resided in Fontana before moving to Rancho Cucamonga about 10 years ago.

He was a guy’s guy who loved the excitement of the outdoors.

“Motorcycle, dirt bike, snow boarding, any kind of extreme sport, he was into,” Valdez said.

Eugenio’s military banner was hung in front of the family home on Tuesday. The city gave the banner to the family after Eugenio’s first deployment.

It has been more than four years since a California National Guardsman was killed in Iraq, according to a California National Guard news release. Eugenio is the 28th California Guardsman to be killed in the conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001.

In a statement, Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin, adjutant general for the California National Guard, said, “We extend our heartfelt condolences to Sgt. Eugenio’s family and commit to them our unwavering support. Sgt. Eugenio’s death, the first of a California Guardsman in Afghanistan, is a painfully wrenching testimony to the bravery, service and sacrifice of our state’s National Guardsmen.”

Eugenio was assigned to the Lancaster-based 756th Transportation Company, 746th Combat Sustainment Service Battalion and 224th Sustainment Brigade. His unit left in August for its one-year mission to Afghanistan.

Last month, the war in Afghanistan entered its 11th year. The conflict in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of two young men from Rancho Cucamonga. Army Spc. Ronnie Pallares, 19, a graduate of Alta Loma High School, died October 2010 from a roadside bomb.

Pallares’ mother, Brenda Pallares, was at the airport to greet Eugenio’s father, sister, brother and girlfriend on Tuesday as they returned from Delaware.

“This day is the hardest,” said Brenda Pallares. “All I could do is give back.”

The parents of Matthew Creed, an Army specialist from Covina who was killed during combat in Iraq, were also at the airport.

“I want families to know they’re not alone,” said Kim Creed, mother of Matthew Creed, now a Rancho Cucamonga resident. “October is just a horrible month.”

The Creeds marked the fifth year of their son’s death on Oct. 22. The Pallares family marked the one-year anniversary of Ronnie Pallares’ death on Oct. 23.

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SGT Eugenio is the 1,824th American killed in Afghanistan … Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden