ROMERO-BOBBY

AN  UNTIMELY  DEATH

Bobby Abran Romero Jr. was born on July 16, 1954 in Espanola, New Mexico.  Available historical records reveal he joined the Marine Corps in August 1974 and during 1975 while assigned to Marine Corps Base, San Diego, was awarded “Marine of the Month.”  Upon being trained as a Marine Security Guard he was initially assigned in May 1976 to the U.S. Embassy at Kabul, Afghanistan.  He was next reassigned in August 1977 to the U.S. Embassy at Paris, France.  In early 1978 he was meritoriously promoted to the rank of Sergeant on the basis of prolonged superior performance and leadership.

Unfortunately, on the evening of March 1, 1978, SGT Romero met an unfortunate and untimely death.  On this occasion, he was standing duty on the second shift (4:30pm - 11:30pm) at the U.S. Information Service.  This office occupied an upper floor in a Paris office building and was a single watch stander post.  Thus, SGT Romero was the only individual present, and his responsibility was to perform security sweeps after the office closed for the day.  As he was making a sweep of the office a fire originated near the main entrance which was later determined to have started due to a faulty coffee pot.  The fire reportedly rapidly rolled through the office in a matter of several short minutes trapping SGT Romero at the end of a hallway where his only means of escape was though a window.  As he attempted to shimmy out of the window and hold on to an extremely narrow ledge outside the window it was to narrow to support him and he fell to his death in the courtyard below.

SGT Romero is buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He was survived by his parents and six siblings.

                           

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)