GOLDSBORO, N.C. — More than 900 people descended upon a church on March 21 to remember Spc. Jocelyn “Joce” Carrasquillo, a North Carolina National Guard member killed by a bomb in Iraq.

Carrasquillo, a member of the Wilmington-based 120th Infantry Regiment, was the second soldier from the state National Guard to die in Iraq. He later was interred with military honors.

A slideshow of a young man who would have been 30 a week and a half after his funeral welcomed Carrasquillo’s fellow soldiers, friends, co-workers, and churchgoers. They filled the 890-seat First Pentecostal Holiness Church past capacity.

Carrasquillo’s mother, Isabel Salgado Carrasquillo, kissed her son before the casket closed.

Carrasquillo’s friend, Kenny Wilson, said he hoped the standing-room-only gathering would bring comfort to Carrasquillo’s parents and three...