Felipe Trujillo Roybal; Another Warrior Lost to History
We lost another one of those three-war, two-star, CIB recipients recently. Command Sergeant Major Felipe Trujillo Roybal, 82d Airborne in WWII, jumping in Normandy, a Korean War veteran and Special Forces in Vietnam, made his final jump off into that great unknown March 22d in William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso. CSM Roybal served from 1937 to 1972, a truly historic three and a half decades of American military history encompassing three of the four major wars that American troops served in during the 20th Century. I’m sure the Sergeant Major could have written one hell of a book.
We are losing these WWII veterans at an increasing rate and I would remind those who read here that if they know of a WWII vet who is capable of travel, you should bust your butt to see that they get to see their beautiful and wonderful memorial in Washington D.C. if at all possible. I took my father-in-law a couple of months after it opened and it was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life which I wrote about here.
Category: Blue Skies, Real Soldiers
Descansa en paz, hermano mayor de armas. Usted tiene nuestro respeto – y nuestro agradecimiento.
Amen, Hondo. La gran mayoría de los estadounidenses ni siquiera sabe que hay TANTOS hispanos heroes de guerra, ni se puede contar! Hay MUCHOS. Roy Benavidez, Isaac Camacho, éste. Quién sabia? Practicamente NADIE.
We aren’t supposed to salute the enlisted ranks without an MOH…
For this guy, I will make an exception…
It is sad to see them go now. They all have a story to tell.
My favorite Veteran was a door gunner for a B-17 that went on the Ploesti Oil Raid and shot down an ME-109, confirmed too.
Slow hand salute Sergeant Major…
THUNDERSTIXX wrote:
“We aren’t supposed to salute the enlisted ranks without an MOH”
______________________________
@ THUNDERSTIXX, Et Alii:
When I was attending III Corps NCO Academy at Fort Hood, Texas, we were told that enlisted personnel can render salutes to each other any time they want to.
The salute is a traditional military greeting between military personnel, regardless of rank.
The motion of the right hand raised to the forehead is symbolic of a knight raising the visor on his helmet, so his face can be seen, and it also shows his dominant hand is empty and, thus, presents no threat.
Commissioned officers are not required to salute an enlisted man who wears the Medal of Honor, but I don’t know of any officer or enlisted personnel who would refuse to.
GROUP!
ATTEN-SHUN!!
PRE-SENT ARMS!!
. . . .
. . . .
OR-DER ARMS!
AT EASE!!
(damned it’s dusty here)
I agree, kind of misty and dusty today. What a truly heroic and honorable man.
Anyone wondering what a real man looks like? Like this man. An American patriot.
Well done, sir. Rest now in peace.
From 1959 to 1962, my father was stationed at William Beaumont General Hospital (note that they keep changing the name of that place), and we lived in the military housing area, “Snake Hill”, located just above the hospital.
From the obituary:
“Visitation and Tribal sending – – – ”
Was he an Apache?
JRM, I saw that too and wondered. The Mescalero Reservation is just northeast of Alamogordo about 100 miles east of Las Cruces, apparently his home. There are some smaller Apache reservations farther away, north of Socorro.
Additionally, the Fort Sill Apache Tribe considers southern New Mexico to be their ancestral home so there’s a lot of back and forth activity from their Oklahoma reservation.
With all those possibilities the tribal reference is a pretty good indicator of a likely relationship.
Apache is one possibility, PT. However, the Las Cruces area was also home to the Manso during Spanish colonial days. That’s an alternate possibility. Not sure that the BIA recognizes the Manso, though, so I’d guess any recognized tribal affiliation was likely Mescalaro Apache.
He reminds me of that fellow I met at the Pentagon for the United States Army’s birthday party.
He was seventy (70) years old, and as the oldest soldier in the United States Army, helped to hold the sword which sliced the birthday cake.
On his Afghanistan combat fatigues, he wore every award and qualification badge that Army regulations permitted.
JRM, what year was it that you went to the Pentagon?
@CLAW131:
I wish I could remember, but it was a few years ago.
Here’s a clue, if it helps:
The 9-11 Memorial located outside of the Pentagon, which the public could access, was still under construction.
Our group (from the Ol’ Soldiers’ Home) visited the 9-11 chapel located inside the Pentagon, which was closed to the public.
Thanks,JRM. So fairly recently then.
Google-Fu says that construction started on 15 Jun 2006 and the memorial was dedicated and opened to the public on 11 Sep 2008.
The reason I’m asking is based on the statement from your first comment (he wore every award and qualification badge that Army regulations permitted), I sure would like to track that individual down and talk to him (if he’s still alive) for awhile.
Not only must he be a MOH recipient, but he has to be an Army Astronaut if he was sporting an Army Aviator Badge with Astronaut Device.
Now that I’m retired and have a lot of spare time on my hands, I’m interested in hearing how many missions he went on (via the space shuttles) to the International Space Station.
He shouldn’t be too hard to track down, since there have only been about 15 Army Astronauts since the program began.
So, a little help, do you happen to remember his name and rank?
Oh, wait, was his name Kirjath Toney?
No, this guy was the REAL deal.
The Pentagon had him help hold the sword to slice the birthday cake.
I invited him and his wife to come visit the Armed Forces Retirement Home, because I knew the guys there would get a real kick out of meeting him.
I’m sorry, but I can’t remember if I saw his name tag and rank.
Also, I’m not familiar with the current combat work uniform.
I didn’t see an Astronaut Badge, and don’t even know what it looks like.
All I know was, at the time, this guy was seventy (70) years old, and he had EVERYTHING, i.e., Airborne, Ranger, Special Forces, Pathfinder, Combat Infantry Badge, you name it.
He was in PEAK physical condition.
He could probably kill a man just by looking at him and thinking about it!
I wrote about meeting him at this web site some time back, and someone responded that they THOUGHT he retired from the Army and was employed in a civilian capacity in Afghanistan.
A certified badass and man amongst men.
RIP CSM Roybal.
Word.
Hardcore.
RIP, CSM.
RiP Sir, thank you for your service. Small parts of a grateful nation remember.
BRAVO ZULU CSM Roybal. Many, many thanks sir. I pray we may be worthy.
Stand and Salute, Rest In Peace.