As Hispanic Heritage Month continues via Saturday, a high Division of Protection Official stated extra may be carried out to extend Hispanic illustration within the navy.
Hispanic Heritage Month was signed into legislation in 1988 by former President Ronald Reagan and acknowledges the tradition and contributions of Americans of Hispanic origins coming from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
It’s noticed yearly from Sept. 15-Oct. 15.
Gilbert Cisneros, the DOD’s undersecretary of protection for personnel and readiness, spoke in the course of the nineteenth Nationwide LATINA Symposium’s Distinguished Army Service Awards on Sept. 30.
“We nonetheless want extra enchancment in Hispanic illustration in our officer corps and particularly in our common and flag officers,” Cisneros stated.
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In accordance with Army demographic knowledge launched in June, out of 465,239 troopers, 80,244, or 17.2%, are Hispanic.
Of the 80,244, 71,106, or 19%, make up the common Army’s enlisted ranks; 6,799, or 9%, are officers; and 1,780, or 12%, are warrant officers.
In accordance with the demographics, 12,427 of the enlisted troopers are Hispanic girls; 1,666 are Hispanic girls officers; and there are 246 Hispanic girls warrant officers.
Not one of the Army’s Hispanic girls officers are greater than the rank of colonel, whereas there are 70 command sergeants main on the enlisted facet.
There are not any Army Hispanic males at a brigadier common or four-star common rank, whereas there are three Hispanic males main generals and one Hispanic man lieutenant common.
With Fort Bragg being the Army’s most populated set up, right here’s a take a look at its Hispanic service members who’ve served domestically and made contributions within the navy.
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Medal of Honor recipients
• Employees Sgt. Roy Benavidez, who was assigned to the fifth Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces Command, was on the ahead working base in Loc Ninh on Might 2, 1968, when helicopters making an attempt an extrication of a 12-man Special Forces reconnaissance workforce returned after being attacked by enemy fireplace.
Benavidez, having voluntarily boarded a returning plane to help in one other extraction try, jumped from the chopper and ran towards wounded members of the workforce whereas underneath enemy fireplace, changing into wounded within the leg, face and head.
Disregarding his accidents, he threw smoke canisters to direct the extrication plane and moved wounded workforce members towards the plane, offering protecting fireplace.
Beneath enemy fireplace, he recovered a physique and categorized paperwork of a useless workforce member, once more being wounded, this time within the stomach and again.
After the helicopter crashed, killing the pilot, Benavidez aided the wounded who have been aboard it and created a protection perimeter.
He known as in tactical air strikes to suppress the enemy’s fireplace, and, when administering assist to a wounded workforce member, was struck in his thigh.
Nonetheless, Benavidez helped transfer troopers towards one other extrication plane that arrived, killing two enemy troopers within the course of.
Benevidez’s ultimate act was to gather or destroy categorized materials and make sure the remaining wounded have been delivered to the plane, earlier than being extricated himself.
He’s credited with saving the lives of at the least eight males.
• Employees Sgt. Felix Conde-Falcon was a part of the D Co., 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, third Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division when he was killed April 4, 1969, in Vietnam.
After artillery and airstrikes, Conde-Falcon led his platoon in a cost to clear an enemy bunker whereas underneath fireplace. Conde-Falcon destroyed two different bunkers and got here underneath fireplace when rejoining his platoon.
Shifting towards the enemy with three different males, Conde-Falcon killed these inside the closest fortification, when he ran out of ammunition.
Throughout an try and safe one other bunker, Conde-Falcon was shot and killed.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by then-President Barak Obama in 2014.
• Pvt. Joe Gandara was a paratrooper with the D Firm, 2nd Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, seventeenth Airborne Division, when he was killed June 9, 1944, in France.
Gandara’s detachment got here underneath enemy fireplace from a Nazi power that pinned the lads to the bottom for 4 hours.
Gandara voluntarily superior alone towards the enemy place. Firing his machine gun from his hip as he moved ahead, he destroyed three hostile machine weapons earlier than being fatally wounded.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2014.
• Sgt. 1st Class Jose Rodela was serving as firm commander of Detachment B-36, A Co., fifth Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces Command, within the Phuoc Lengthy Province, Republic of Vietnam, when his battalion got here underneath mortar, rocket and machine gun fireplace Sept. 1, 1969.
Rodela positioned his males into defensive positions to forestall the enemy from overrunning the battalion and repeatedly uncovered himself to enemy fireplace for 18 hours.
Whereas offering suppressing fireplace and aiding the wounded, he was hit within the again and head by a B-40 rocket whereas recovering a wounded comrade.
Rodela retired from the Army in 1975 and was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2014.
• Capt. Humbert Roque “Rocky” Versace was an intelligence officer for particular operations when he was captured by Viet Cong guerillas in Vietnam, on Oct. 29, 1963 — two weeks earlier than he was on account of return house.
Versace was accompanying a civilian irregular protection group on patrol when the group got here underneath fireplace from the enemy power.
In accordance with his Medal of Honor quotation, Versace offered cowl fireplace to pleasant forces and resisted seize regardless of being wounded.
As soon as captured, he assumed command of fellow American prisoners whereas locked in irons in an isolation field.
Versace tried to flee 4 occasions and protested improper remedy of different American prisoners, earlier than being positioned in leg irons and gagged.
The final time fellow prisoners heard from him, he was singing “God Bless America.”
Versace was executed Sept. 26, 1965.
His stays have by no means been recovered.
Versace was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on July 8, 2002, and is the primary Army soldier to obtain the award for his actions as a POW, in keeping with the Army.
Bragg buildings that honor fallen Hispanic troopers
• Maj. Federico Jose Fernandez was a 307th Engineer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division soldier who was killed in a coaching accident March 30, 1982. Fernandez Baby Improvement Middle is called after him.
• Employees Sgt. Edwardo Loredo was a paratrooper assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment who was killed June 24, 2010, by an improvised explosive gadget in Afghanistan. Loredo Baby Improvement Middle was devoted in 2016 and is called after him.
• Employees Sgt. Joe S. Rodriguez, was a 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry paratrooper killed in motion Feb. 29, 1968, in Vietnam whereas serving with the third Brigade Fight Group, 82nd Airborne Division. Rodriguez Baby Improvement Middle is called after him.
Different notable Special Forces troopers
Maj. Iván Castro turned the primary blind graduate of the Maneuver Captain’s Profession Course at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Castro, who grew up in Puerto Rico, enlisted within the Army in 1988 and later served with the 82nd Airborne Division, seventh Special Forces Group and different models.
He was serving with the 2nd Brigade Fight Group, 82nd Airborne Division on Sept. 2, 2006, in Iraq as a scout platoon chief when he was within the technique of transferring his males to a brand new location.
A mortar struck a close-by constructing and a second blast that was 5 ft away from Castro precipitated accidents to his shoulder, arm, nostril, cheekbone, finger and lungs.
He misplaced his proper eye, as shrapnel lodged into his left eye.
After 17 months of restoration, Castro returned to the seventh Special Forces Group and was later chosen to command the particular operations recruiting firm.
He retired from the Army in January 2017 and has since based the Particular Operators Problem.
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• Retired Grasp Sgt. Isaac Camacho was serving with the Detachment A-21, fifth Special Forces Group when Viet Cong forces attacked his camp Nov. 24, 1963, in Vietnam.
In accordance with Camacho’s Distinguished Service Cross quotation, the then-sergeant top notch maneuvered via fireplace to man a mortar and engaged the enemy till ordered by his commanding officer to withdraw from the camp.
Camacho was captured after separating from his commanding officer within the darkness.
After losing a few pounds for 18 months, guards eliminated his shackles to make use of for brand new prisoners.
Throughout heavy rain, Camacho eliminated a bar from his cage to slide via on July 9, 1965.
He was the primary American soldier to flee Viet Cong captivity.
Camacho later retired from the Army in 1975.
Prime leaders
• Retired Gen. David Rodriguez was commander of the 82nd Airborne Division from April 2006 to August 2008 and is the division’s longest-serving commander who served in fight, with a complete of 15 months.
Earlier in his profession, he commanded the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment and deployed with the first Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment throughout Desert Protect and Desert Storm.
Rodriguez was commander of the division in the course of the 2007 enemy surge in Afghanistan and later change into a four-star common of the U.S. Army Forces Command.
• Retired Brig. Gen. Hector Pagan grew up in Puerto Rico and served with the 7th Special Forces Group in Panama throughout Operation Simply Trigger from 1988 to 1990. In 2003, he commanded the 5th Special Forces Group throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pagan change into deputy commander of the U.S. Army Particular Operations Command in 2006 adopted by being deputy commander of the John F. Kennedy Particular Warfare Middle and College in 2007. Pagan’s final navy project was as commander of the Particular Operations Command South earlier than he retired in 2010.
• Command Sgt. Maj. Julie Guerra is the sergeant main for the Army’s deputy chief of employees for intelligence on the Pentagon. Guerra beforehand served at Fort Bragg as a primary sergeant for the B Firm, 519th Army Intelligence Battalion, 525th Army Expeditionary Brigade. She has additionally spoken out in opposition to sexual assault and harassment within the Army.
• Command Sgt. Maj. Delia Quintero is the senior enlisted advisor for the Army Cyber Middle of Excellence and Fort Gordon, Georgia. She has beforehand served in numerous ranks at Fort Bragg together with part sergeant and first sergeant inside models underneath the 35th Sign Brigade; first sergeant for the 18th Airborne Corps Noncommissioned Academy; brigade commander of the 4th Brigade Fight Group, 82nd Airborne Division and supervisory operations sergeant main for the 82nd Airborne Division.
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Air Drive
Ramón “CZ” Colón-López is the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees and was inducted into Puerto Rico’s Distinguished Veteran’s Corridor of Fame in 2017, in keeping with his biography.
From 1999 to 2005, Colón-López was a particular ways ingredient chief for the 24th Particular Ways Squadron at Pope Air Drive Base.
Whereas serving in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2004, Colón-López earned his first Bronze Star for offering presidential safety element for Hamid Karzai.
He earned a second Bronze Star for his actions throughout a March 11, 2004, mission to seize a goal who was funding terrorism. Through the mission, a helicopter Colón-López was in was shot at and broken because it landed. Colón-López suppressed enemy fireplace from one other three helicopters. He and his workforce have been in a position to kill two enemy fighters, seize 10 and destroy rocket-propelled grenade rounds and small-caliber weapons leading to no American deaths due to their actions.
In 2007, he was the primary Hispanic to be awarded the Air Drive’s new Fight Motion Medal created to acknowledge airmen’s actions whereas underneath fireplace or firing on the enemy in an unsecured fight zone space.
Colón-López has additionally beforehand served because the senior enlisted advisor for the 24th Ways Squadron from 2009 to 2011 at Pope Air Drive and was group superintendent of the 724th Particular Ways Group at Pope.
Employees author Rachael Riley may be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
