Posted on 02/17/2002 5:43:48 AM PST by Prodigal Daughter
FAMILY MOURNS THEIR `PROUD' MARINE, LOVING SON
For months, Tamara Rodriguez worried that her only child, a U.S. Marine, would be sent to fight the war in Afghanistan, where he could be killed. She never imagined his life would end in a freak accident at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he was based.
Lance Cpl. Roger Dieguez Rodriguez, 20, died Wednesday after he was crushed by the barrel of a 15,740-pound mobile howitzer during a training accident, officials said. He suffered injuries to his lungs, chest and heart and died shortly after arriving at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington.
Family members and friends took comfort in the knowledge that Dieguez was doing something he loved.
"When he was in high school, he dreamed about being a a Marine," said his aunt, Tamoha Martinez. He was crazy about joining the Marines. He was so proud when he came home the first time in his dress blues and his white cap for his cousin's wedding. He felt like a general.
"I never saw anyone so proud to wear a uniform," she said, "and he wasn't even born in this country."
Born in Camaguey, Cuba, Diegez left the island in a boat in 1994, just before a massive rafter exodus forced a change in U.S. immigration policy toward Cubans. He was 12 then, and he and his mother joined a group of about 20 others who landed in the Cayman Islands. They spent five months in Grand Cayman, said Martinez, who visited tweice with suitcases filled with food, a radio, a fan and personal hygiene items.
"He would always tell me, "Tia, I want you to bring me McDonald's."
The mother and son then spent six months at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before arriving in South Florida. They made Hialeah their home, and Dieguez graduated from Miami Springs High School in 1999. Two weeks later, he was at boot camp.
The accident, which is under investigation, occurred as Dieguez, a cannoneer who joined the Marines in June 1999, stood behind an M198 mobile howitzer as its giant barrel was being removed.
Base spokesman Capt. William Mitchell said the barrel of the howitzer can be taken out for repair or maintenance.
"It slid back through the assembly when you would normally see it recoil, and it did not catch and crushed the Marine who was standing behind it," Mitchell said.
"It is a hard blow to us to have lost a Marine," he said ."The whole base feels the loss."
Dieguez was looking forward to life after the military, friends said.
"He said he only had a few months to go, and he wanted to go to college with me," said his girlfriend, Yanely Vega, 21,. "I spoke to him the day before he died, Tuesday night. He said he was going to ask for some vacation so we could be together for a few days."
He also talked to her about marriage, she said, pain visible in he face. When Dieguez's aunt pulled out a photograph to show friends who had stopped by, Vega sobbed uncontrollably.
Rodriguez, who had not slept since she heard of the accident Wednesday afternoon, was even more distraught.
"She raised his photograph to the sky and said, 'God, give him back to me. I can't believe You gave him to me just to take him away,'" Martinez recalled of her sister's words. "She said, 'When I had him in my house I had the world.'
"My sister lived for her son. Everything she did, she did for him. He was her life."
Martinez, too, wept as she spoke of her nephew. "I saw him being born," she said. "He didn't even weigh five pounds, he was so small. Then he became such a strong, good looking boy. I called him my little soldier. My little iron soldier."
Friends and family members said they expected the military to fly Dieguez's body to South Florida by Saturday. A wake is being planned for this weekend at Vista Memorial Funeral Home.
In addition to his mother and aunt, Dieguez is survived by his father, Roger Dieguez, still in Cuba.
"Pray for my sister," Martinez said. "So that God gives her--not peace or reconciliation, she will never have that--''but strength to live."
As you saw on the other thread, some can't handle a story that sheds a positive light on an immigrant.
God bless Lance Cpl. Roger Dieguez Rodriguez.
This young American certainly gave all to his country.
This is very true.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.