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Ramon B. Aguilar-Sanchez ’54

No. 2006913 February 1928 - 7 July 1992

 

Died: Houston, TX     Interred: Fairfax, VA

Ramon Benigno Aguilar-Sanchez came to West Point as a foreign cadet from La Grita, Venezuela, a small, 400-year-old town nestled in the Venezuelan Andes. “Aggie,” as he was affectionately known, was the fourth child and only son of Carmen and Ramon de Jesus Aguilar, a housewife and a mule train driver. When Aggie was 18 months old, his father died, and the family moved to San Cristobal, where Aggie grew up.

As a young boy, he helped his mother bake cornbread and sell it at the local market and on street corners to help support their family. Consequently, he became tough and determined but also became a poor student and a school bully. He once challenged the school’s star student to a fistfight, which Aggie could easily have won. The other boy, however, challenged Aggie to beat him with better grades. Aggie accepted the challenge, applied himself to his studies, and for the rest of his life maintained a focused desire to learn, a value he often passed on to those he met.

After high school, Aggie attended the University of Los Andes, studying civil engineering. In 1949, when the Venezuelan president announced a countrywide search for candidates to attend the U.S. Military Academy, Aggie applied and won an appointment. He entered the Academy on 5 July 1950, one of the older members of the Class of 1954.

Aggie’s time at West Point was difficult. His lack of proficiency in English increased his academic workload. His time at the Andes University, however, eased his workload in the sciences, allowing him to dedicate more time to the social sciences and English. He became a member of the Academy’s boxing team, competing in the Golden Gloves. He participated in the Chess, French, Portuguese, and Spanish Clubs, and he was a Catholic Chapel acolyte.

Aggie graduated from the Military Academy in June 1954 and was commissioned into the Army of Venezuela as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. In 1955, he completed a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

After his return to Venezuela, Aggie met and fell in love with Victoria Mogollon, the daughter of the land baron for whom Aggie’s father had worked. Upon learning Aggie was the son of his trusty, old, mule train driver, Mr. Mogollon gave his immediate permission for the marriage, which Victoria agreed to after a year-long courtship.

Entering the Venezuelan Corps of Engineers, Aggie’s career ironically paralleled that of his beloved four-year West Point roommate, Andre Broumas, an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Both moved through typical junior officer assignments, then commanded combat engineer companies as captains, attended the U.S. Army Engineer Advanced Course together at Ft. Belvoir, VA, and served as commanders of their respective countries’ 8th Combat Engineer Battalions in their 1st Cavalry Divisions. It was during this assignment that Aggie received the tragic news that Andre had been killed in Viet Nam when his command helicopter was shot down.

Aggie’s battalion won the Venezuelan Armed Forces Athletic Games three years in a row after he had prepared for the competition by diligently applying GEN Douglas MacArthur’s “fields of friendly strife” philosophy and instituting an intense program of physical conditioning. He then was assigned to lead the Venezuelan Army Team to the Venezuelan Armed Forces Games, where it won many of its events. He recalled with pride a private who had failed his first two attempts at the pole vault, the second of which caused him to be injured. Not knowing the extent of the private’s injuries, Aggie went to him and told him that he could quit at any time but that “his command had no quitters.” The private made his third jump and won the gold medal, despite a broken collar bone.

Aggie then served at the headquarters of the Venezuelan army. He attended the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, DC, as a student and then served as an instructor. Returning to Venezuela, he was assigned as adjutant to the army commander, promoted to brigadier general, and named commander of the Venezuelan Army Staff College. After undergoing open-heart surgery, he was assigned as the Venezuelan Army Military Attaché in Washington, DC, where he worked closely with his old classmates from West Point during the United States involvement in Grenada and Central America. For his performance he was awarded the U.S. Army Legion of Merit. His 34 years of honorable military service culminated in his final assignment as the military advisor to the Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations in New York City.

After retiring from the Venezuelan military, Aggie went back to school and earned a master’s degree in education, his second love, from George Mason University. While going to school, he taught Spanish to American Foreign Service officers preparing for overseas assignments. He was offered several lucrative jobs in the defense industry, with the caveat that he would give up his Venezuelan citizenship. Aggie loved the United States. Thirteen years of his 34-year long career in the Venezuelan Army had been spent in the United States. His most revered decoration was the National Defense Medal, awarded while at West Point. Nonetheless, his sense of Duty, Honor, Country and love for Venezuela would not permit him to give up his citizenship.

On 7 Jul 1992, Aggie died in Houston, TX, of complications from a second heart by­pass surgery. Victoria was by his side. They had shared 36 years of marriage, six children, eight grandchildren, and an abiding love, which endures to this day.

At Aggie’s graveside service, stars and suns depicted in the flags of general officers of the armies of the United States and Venezuela fluttered briskly side by side. Those in attendance, in and out of uniform, lovingly and respectfully rendered the hand salute in tribute to a fallen comrade, a mentor, and a friend. The Army of Venezuela recognized Ramon Benigno Aguilar-Sanchez with a full-page obituary in a national newspaper under the following headline: “A great man has been taken from our ranks. He will be terribly missed.”

Well done, Aggie. Be thou at peace.

—Written by his son, Ramon Aguilar, Jr., with contributions by classmates, family, and friends.

 

Originally published in JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 TAPS

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