VOiCES OF VALOR - Women In Military Service For America Memorial

Vo i c e s
of
Va l o r
Cpl Ramona M. Valdez
US Marine Corps
Purple Heart
Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2005
Voices of Valor
Crossroads Communicator:
Marine Killed Protecting the Front Lines
June 23, 2005, was the deadliest day for women in the Global War
on Terror. Three servicewomen were killed, and 11 wounded, when
a car bomb exploded alongside their vehicle outside Fallujah, Iraq.
Among those killed was 20-year-old communications specialist Cpl
Ramona M. Valdez of New York, NY.
Cpl Valdez deployed to Iraq in February 2005 and had been employing her expert knowledge of single-channel radios with the 2nd
Marine Division’s Counter Improvised Explosive Devise Working
Group. Every Marine in Fallujah had additional duties, however. For
Valdez, that meant helping with tasks outside assigned duties, such
as assisting with equipment purchases and providing communications support to help ensure Iraq elections earlier in the year went
smoothly. In the spring, Cpl Valdez teamed up with 16 other servicewomen when the Corps needed women to form a Female Search
Force to search Iraqi women and children for explosive devices at
checkpoints around Fallujah. The United States formed the all-female search forces as a proactive effort to calm Iraqi concerns that
male soldiers might search Islamic women, which would be contrary
to the area’s cultural customs.
Cpl Ramona M. Valdez, USMC
USMC Photo.
H At the Crossroads of US Military and Iraqi Interaction H
Checkpoints are dangerous duty—they literally are the crossroads of US military and Iraqi interaction and,
thus, targets for insurgent suicide bombings and attacks. Traveling the Fallujah streets to get to and from
checkpoints was dangerous too, forcing Marines to constantly watch for both suicide bombers and the hidden
danger of Improvised Explosive Devices. Female Search Force members traveled the 15 miles between the
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checkpoint area, the Civil Military Operations Center, and Camp Fallujah every day and faced each trip with
worry but determination.
June 23, 2005, was no different. Cpl Valdez laced her boots and went to work with an uneasy feeling that she
shared with fellow Marines as they boarded the transport truck that morning. It was an especially quiet trip,
too quiet. The streets were almost empty—an ominous sign of pending attack that checkpoint guards had
learned to recognize. The day went by without incident and force members packed up to head back to camp,
the morning’s uneasiness still traveling with them. The sense of heightened alert every Marine felt on that day’s
convoy was not enough, however, to thwart the suicide bomber who, minutes later, turned the Female Search
Force’s 7-ton truck into an instant inferno.
H Young Marine Killed in Iraq H
Cpl Valdez was killed almost instantly, four days before her 21st birthday. She and fellow servicewomen, LCpl
Holly Charette and Navy Petty Officer First Class Regina Clark, were posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
Cpl Valdez and LCpl Charette were the first two women Marines killed in Iraq.
Eleven women survived and fought through
both the explosion and the firefight that
ensued. Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas O’Dell
Jr. wept as he awarded Purple Hearts to the
survivors from Cpl Valdez’s force. He was
moved, he told the Marine Corps News,
“not by special sympathy for the women”
but because of the display of equality born
of that horrible day in Fallujah. The general
explained that while military leaders believed
women Marines could perform as bravely as
men under deadly attack, there had never
been a trial like the one in Fallujah to prove
it. As he bestowed Purple Heart medals upon
the brave Marines before him, the general
said that he saw the heroic beauty of equality
in bravery. “It’s the difference between believing in a miracle and then seeing one,” he
said.
Elida Valdez, mother of Cpl Ramona M. Valdez, receives flowers during the
dedication of the “Valdez Training Facility,” II MEF Communications Training Center at the Marine Corps Base Camp LeJeune, NC, June 1, 2007.
The Valdez Training Facility was named after her daughter, a communication specialist with Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine
Expeditionary Force (Forward), who was killed in Iraq, June 23, 2005.
USMC Photo by LCpl Billy Hall.
MGySgt Keith A. Sylvain, the division’s communications chief, remembered the heroic beauty of Cpl Valdez’s service at her memorial. She was a wellrespected, hard-working Marine who was “always a joy to work with,” he said. Though the most junior rank in
her section, MGySgt Sylvain noted that Valdez’s communications skills and dedication to doing any job that
needed doing—and doing it very well—gave her clout above her rank.
That her Marine Corps family would remember their sister-in-arms for her hard work and dedication came as
no surprise to her family back home. Cpl Valdez grew up with an instinctive understanding of responsibility and
Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation, Inc.
Dept. 560 • Washington, DC 20042-0560• 703-533-1155 • 800-222-2294 • FAX 703-931-4208• www.womensmemorial.org • [email protected]
Voices of Valor 2008 Women’s History Month Kit • www.womensmemorial.org/Education/WHM08Kit.html
Cpl Ramona M. Valdez is depicted on a plaque at the Valdez Training Facility, Camp
LeJeune, NC. USMC Photo by LCpl Billy Hall.
duty, and an almost impatient drive to achieve, born perhaps of her immigrant roots and a deep appreciation
for the freedoms and opportunities the United States holds.
H Her Immigrant Roots H
Cpl Valdez immigrated to the Bronx, NY, from the Dominican Republic when she was six years old. She grew
up within blocks of Yankee Stadium, knowing that the cheer she most wanted to shout was, “Oo-Rah!” Her
mother, Eldina Nunez, told the New York Times that her daughter had first started talking about joining the
military in elementary school, a desire that only grew stronger after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in
New York City.
Her family says that, though she liked shopping and hanging with friends, their teen was dedicated to two
things: family and country. At age 14, the future Marine corporal volunteered to find work. The first generation
immigrant knew where she wanted to work; she got her first paycheck from selling concessions at the Statue of
Liberty. Cpl Valdez was driven to finish high school early, graduating from Jane Addams High School at age 15
and attending community college so she could get into the work force and better support her parents.
H Joining the USMC H
When Cpl Valdez evaluated how best to fulfill future responsibilities, she left her work at Liberty Island and
went to work for the United States of America. In 2002, a 17-year-old Valdez, begged her mother to sign parental permission papers so she could enlist in the US Marine Corps.
“She wanted to be in the Marines, so we supported her and let her go,” her father, Louis Valdez, told the New
York Times. In fact, Cpl Valdez wanted to be a Marine so much that, as she prepared for boot camp in 2002,
her recruiter said that she eagerly came nearly every day to work out and volunteer at the recruiting station.
Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation, Inc.
Dept. 560 • Washington, DC 20042-0560• 703-533-1155 • 800-222-2294 • FAX 703-931-4208• www.womensmemorial.org • [email protected]
Voices of Valor 2008 Women’s History Month Kit • www.womensmemorial.org/Education/WHM08Kit.html
Cpl Valdez remained on the fast track in life.
She fell in love and married fellow Marine
Cpl Armando Guzman, when she was just
18. War kept the newlyweds apart; he served
two tours in Iraq, she was completing her
first.
The young corporal was killed eight months
before the end of her four-year enlistment,
and she had already been preparing for a future beyond the Marines. She had completed
paperwork to become a state highway patrol
officer and enroll at a four-year college when
Elida Valdez touches a newly-revealed plaque outside the Valdez Training
she returned.
Facility during a building dedication ceremony. USMC Photo by LCpl Billy
Hall.
Cpl Valdez was also looking forward to
returning to a new home and chasing the American Dream with her husband and family. Though she loved the
United States, Cpl Valdez had wanted her mother to move from the largeness of New York City and into the
kind of small-town home that she had always imagined for her mom. As her tour in the Marines was drawing to
a close in 2005, Cpl Valdez finally convinced her mother to move from New York City to Reading, PA.
She moved from a Bronx apartment into the red brick home of Cpl Valdez’s dreams, complete with white and
yellow flowers. It is the classic “American home,” her mother said, a home that her daughter did not live to see.
H Valdez Training Facility: Her Legacy Lives On H
The corporal’s Marine family ensured, however, that her legacy—her dedication to hard work and country—
would live on. On June 1, 2007, the Marine Corps dedicated its new II MEF Communications Training Center
at the Marine Corps Base Camp LeJeune, NC, as the “Valdez Training Facility.” During the ceremony, Col.
John A. Del Colliano, explained that the impact of Cpl Valdez’s communications work in the field was the driving force behind the dedication of a building where he hoped future generations of communications staff would
desire to live up to Cpl Valdez’s example. “Her legacy will live on here for years to come,” he said, “and she will
be forever associated at a crossroads for communications in the Marine Corps.”
(March 2008)
Women In Military Service For America Memorial Foundation, Inc.
Dept. 560 • Washington, DC 20042-0560• 703-533-1155 • 800-222-2294 • FAX 703-931-4208• www.womensmemorial.org • [email protected]
Voices of Valor 2008 Women’s History Month Kit • www.womensmemorial.org/Education/WHM08Kit.html