This year I lost my grandfather and wrote the obituary below for the paper. I knew all these stories and could name every island and every battle he'd been on, I'd been hearing them my whole life, but to see them all in one place though, even this condensed version, was more than humbling. I find myself thinking a lot about him today and in posting this just now realized I never once heard him tell a single story about personal valor or prowess. It was always that of his fellow Marines. Happy Veterans Day Grandpa, Semper Fi
TRUJILLO, Clodovaldo
After losing Elena, his wife of 69 years, Clodovaldo Trujillo survived less than a year, dying March 30, 2015 at the age of ninety. He passed the same way he lived, quiet, with dignity and without drama. He was the father of five children, grandfather to four and great-grandfather to one.
Lying about his age, he joined the Marine Corps at sixteen, a year before the start of World War II, and saw action on the islands of Guadalcanal, Kwajalein, Tinian, Saipan, and Okinawa among others. He again fought during the Korean War at the Invasion of Incheon, the Breakout from the Pusan Perimeter and the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. He retired from active duty as a Master Sergeant after participating in the Battle of Hue City and the Siege at Khe Sanh but remained a Marine for the rest of his life. Among his numerous awards and decorations were the Bronze Star for Valor, the Purple Heart and the Presidential Unit Citation.
He started work at Richmond Time Service as a watchmaker the week he retired from the Marine Corps in 1968, bought the business in 1981 and continued to work there for the rest of his life. He was a master Swiss trained watch maker and a fixture in the Tampa business community with a widespread reputation for being honest, gracious and polite as much as for being skilled.
In his final days he took solace in reminiscing about the Corps and it is Marines that will carry him to his final resting place beside his beloved Elena. He will be missed but not forgotten.
