|
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.
|
