Carlos E. Gil Orozco, Marines, Corporal -- Rest In Peace

Carlos E. Gil Orozco, 23

Marines, Corporal
Based: Camp Lejeune, N.C.
2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: September 10, 2007
Anbar province, Iraq
Married, 2 children
Gender: Male
Hometown: San Jose
High School: Willow Glen High (San Jose)
Foreign Country of Birth: Colombia
Burial: Oak Hill Memorial Park, San Jose

Marine Cpl. Carlos E. Gil Orozco was killed in Iraq before ever getting to see his infant son, Kenny Carlo.
But over the 3 1/2 months from Kenny's birth until Gil Orozco's death Sept. 9 on a combat operation in Anbar province, the soldier would send his son a card or letter about once a week.

Gil Orozco also would write to his wife in San Jose. He married Esmeralda Gil on May 27, 2006, exactly a year before Kenny was born.

The letters reflected Gil Orozco's outgoing, fun-loving nature and his devotion to family, along with the occasional rockiness of a young marriage.

His wife would read the letters addressed to their son. The last one arrived a few days after Gil Orozco was killed when the Humvee in which he was riding ran over a roadside bomb west of Baghdad. He was 23.

It read, in part, "I miss you my chiquito [little one] and I've been thinking about you like hell. . . . I just hate to write but this way I'm showing you my love and how much you mean to me.


"I can't wait until me and you go get a haircut together and go in the green grass and play ball with me and your brother Carlos," he added, referring to his other son, Carlos Alexander, a 5-year-old from a previous relationship. "Well I hope you're not being a baby and cry all the time ha ha. I love you Kenny, I do with all my heart."

Gil Orozco called Kenny by the nickname he lovingly gave to his son, Cabezon, or big head, after seeing pictures of him.

In his last letter to his wife, Gil Orozco wrote that he wanted to "thank U 4 having a beautiful son and [being] a great mother to him ur a great woman and sometimes I don't realize that."

He chided himself for being foolish at times and promised to "fix myself cause my son needs me and so do u. . . . I know sometimes we fight and get into it but our love it's stronger than ever."

Gil Orozco arrived in San Jose when he was 8, after he and his family left their native Colombia. In addition to his wife and children, he is survived by his parents, Carlos Gabriel Gil and Myriam Orozco; and a sister, Myriam Johanna Gil Orozco,15.

His family nickname was Pochito, which, in his family's Colombian slang, means chubby. Gil Orozco became an avid weightlifter, however, and grew into a powerfully built young man about 6 feet 1 and 250 pounds. He enjoyed riding his motorcycle, playing soccer and listening to the music of rapper Tupac Shakur, according to his family and friends.

Visit the Guest Book for Marine Corporal Carlos E. Gil Orozco here and read more about him here. The above article is from the LA Times.

1

Marine Corporal Carlos E. Gil Orozco previously remembered by Boom3 on Friday, September 10, 2010.