Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Juan Ortiz
I'm sitting here in my hotel room down in Destin Florida. I've been on the road for a while for the Air Force, trying to sell an idea to the various agencies within the Air Force that will greatly increase their capability to get the job done and directly help the troops in the field. I'll write more about this program later on.
Today is the day after the Virginia Tech Massacre, and I still can't believe it happened. Something about it is different. This situation is bigger than what it seems. It must be. Why else would I feel the way I do about it all?
Ironically my neighbor, who is a civilian in the Air Force, is down here at Eglin AFB working on another program. When I came back to my hotel for dinner she told me that one of her family members was killed at Virginia Tech. Sam, her husband and a good friend of mine, got the call that his cousin was killed in the Engineering building on Monday.
The following is everything I've found on Juan Ortiz so far. If you come across anything else, please let me know. I translated most of it from the San Juan papers. No US news outlets have anything on him yet. I'd like to change that.
Juan Ortiz was 26 years old, and a graduate student in the Engineering Department at Virginia Tech where he was studying Civil Engineering, focusing on Water Resources. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the San Juan Polytechnic University, and he carried with him the hopes and dreams of his family and his proud heritage.
Juan was recently married to Leslie Ortiz, who was also a student at Virginia Tech. They were planning on starting a family after they graduated.
His father said this to the AP.
"If I begin to speak of him I do not finish, he was an extraordinary son, which any father had wanted. The day of his wedding, I said a silly thing to him that only I, being a father, can understand why I said it, because I felt it in my heart. I thanked him for being my son. He was special."
To Juan Ortiz, Sam and Yadira, the Ortiz Family, and all of the other victims and families involved in this tragedy, we are here for you, we mourn with you, and we will never forget.
posted by El Capitan at 10:38 PM
4 Comments:
Southern (in)Sanity said...
I will never understand why the media focuses so much on the shooter and little, if any at all, on the victims - or the heroes in such a tragedy.
I am sorry for your friend's loss.
Kaitlin said...
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I posted a portion of your entry with links to your blog on NowPublic.com, in a memorial for Juan Ortiz:
http://www.nowpublic.com/node/316875
Please feel free to comment on the entry or any of our other memorials:
http://www.nowpublic.com/tags/memoriam
Take care, my thoughts are with your neighbor and her family at this difficult time.
Kaitlin
Southern (in)Sanity said...
They had a brief bio on Juan Ortiz in yesterday's edition of USA Today. Just thought I would pass that along in case you missed it.
1:45 PM Lindsay said...
Cap, there was something on the Washington Post website as well. He sounds like a really great guy...it pains me to see the life of such a promising young man cut short.
2:09 PM