Posted on 01/20/2006 5:42:15 PM PST by cgk
Sgt. Francisco D. Aquino, 25, of Hidalgo, N.M., was declared dead in his room at 8:32 a.m. Tuesday, according Sgt. Nathan LaForte.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service was handling the probe, LaForte said.
Aquino was an auto mechanic assigned to Marine Air Control Squadron 1, Marine Air Control Group 38, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, he said.
Aquino was deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from February to March 2003, and later in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, from March to June 2003, LaForte said.
2006
Sgt. Francisco D. Aquino, 25, of Hidalgo, N.M., was found shot in his barracks room and was pronounced dead at that location at about 8:30 a.m.
Aquino, who joined the Marines in 2000, was an automotive mechanic who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003. He was assigned to the Air Control Squadron 1, Marine Air Control Group 38, which is based at Miramar.
Among the awards Aquino received during his service were the Presidential Unit Citation, the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. He was also twice the recipient of the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.
The military is conducting an investigation of the shooting.
Ping to the SD FReepers I know... This wasn't posted, and I don't understand why it isn't bigger news on the national scene... I'd sure like to know what happened.
The guy who was shot is about 3 years older. I'm sure I'll hear some feedback from my son if/when it is appropriate.
Don't know abot Marines but years ago in the Army a good conduct medal meant you were squeekie clean, so to say.
Not to make light of this Marines death but in the Navy we called it the not getting caught medal.
When I received mine everyone started laughing.
The Army good conduct medal is automatic now for any soldier every three years of service- if there has been no non-judicial punishment or letter of reprimand given to the soldier. In the old days, if you didn't get an Article 15, you wouldn't make a great NCO. Now, even one bad mark in your records can stop a career and get you forced (chaptered) out of the service.
I was actually surprised that the Marine Sergeant didn't have more awards- all those listed are automatically awarded for service in current operations - especially for an NCO.
In my opinion, anyone willing to sign the line is already a hero in my book. Especially those Marines.
Marines don't give medals for morale, they give medals for exceptional service.
I've never heard of Hidalgo, NM. I think they must have meant Hidalgo County.
My son made sargeant within two years of enlisting in the Marine Corp. He went on to become an ambassador's aide when he developed diabetes and was given a medical discharge. He was devastated as he had planned to make the corp his career.
L
'nother SD freeper here for future pings.
I respectfully disagree as far as the "national service" medals go- they are given to every servicemember for service during periods of conflict and some are specific to areas of conflict. It seems that over my last 23 years (the 19th of January was my 23rd anniversary of raising my hand and heading off to Basic Training) there has been a significant increase in the amount of service-wide medals for almost every mission. I lost count of the medals I received for just stepping into the Balkans in 1996- the awards that matter to me are those that "I" earned myself.
I can say that I have only worked about eight years of "joint service" so I have only limited experience with Marines, thus I don't know how difficult it is to be recognized for exceptional service. I noticed that Marines do have much fewer medals on their chests than the rest of the services, which must lend credence to your statement.
I hope you didn't take my comments the wrong way. I was trying to say that it seems strange that an NCO wouldn't have at least one achievement award or commendation medal- but, remember that I'm Army.
We called it the medal for four years of undetected crime.
When I was on active duty they gave them out every four years, now I heard they changed it to three.
Tell him: thanks.
You are correct. The young marine was from Lordsburg, which is in Hidalgo County, New Mexico.
See: good conduct medal history for history on that medal. It appears to have always been a three year service award, except during wartime, where it can be awarded for one year of service.
We called it the medal for four years of undetected crime.
boy, isn't that the truth! Ha ha. UCMJ/regulations and Missions usually contradict one another. If you want to accomplish the mission on time with available resources, there is usually at least one regulation broken. Good Commanders will know the difference between a soldier "enhancing" the unit and the detrimental soldier.
have a great evening.
That reminds me of my two year enlistment between 1966-68. I was in a small "cadre" unit that had a bunch of us with weird MOS's. Due to the rapid growth of the Corps during that Vietnam buildup period, a couple of Intelligence PFC's zipped thru Lance Corporal, Corporal and went to Sergeant E-5...needless to say, the much senior (in time) who suddenly found themselves outranked were dumbfounded.
One guy was a Logistics MOS and he actually made Staff Sergeant in his two years...unbelievable.
Things like this do happen occasionally. We had a couple shootings (self inflicted) in the barracks while I was stationed at El Toro.
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