Military couple returns home after 28 years

Lt. Col. Amando Ruiz III and his wife Norma Tamez Ruiz are shown inside their San Benito home on Sunday. (Staff photo by Michael Rodriguez)

By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com

It’s been nearly three decades since Lt. Col. Amando Ruiz III has had the opportunity to live anywhere for more than six years.

As such, life in the United States Marine Corps has its challenges, and moving 11 times, rotating between five different states, staying two or three years here and there but never longer than six years was merely one obstacle that 52-year-old Amando and his beloved wife, 51-year-old Norma Tamez Ruiz have overcome.

But do not misunderstand, over the years Amando and Norma have befriended other military couples who, just like them, were finding difficulty in the transition from living quiet lives at home to incurring the fast-paced lifestyle of a Marine. “You bond with them, and you bond hard. To this day I believe there are only one or two people we’ve lost contact with. That’s how much they mean to us… very good people,” Norma said.

Still, to endure the rigors of climbing the ranks from enlistment to supply officer, and then to be deployed to Al Anbar Province, Iraq where Amando was responsible for $2.4 billion worth of equipment – not to mention being the target of rockets and the drones that followed – it’s safe to conclude that the Ruizes are now happy right where they are: home.

On Sunday, the Ruizes opened their newly refurbished home, their 11th and God-willing their last, to the San Benito News after returning Thursday. Amando had just retired from 28 years of service in the Marines, and it was time to celebrate.

Naturally, his first order of business was to pay a little visit to La Especial Bakery in San Benito. “The very first morning after spending the night here, he went to Ornelas (bakery) to get some pan dulce. That’s the first thing I did,” Amando said with a chuckle. A native of Harlingen, he often spent Sundays at his grandparents’ house on Bravo Street in San Benito, where the Ornelas family’s La Especial Bakery was located nearby.

Meanwhile, Amando’s wife couldn’t wait to see her family again. “We had family in and out all day. It was just wonderful being around them,” Norma said. She even had her husband play a carefully-selected “going away song” to mark the occasion, “Somewhere Down In Texas” by George Strait. “Everybody took a turn dancing with me the night we came back. My brother and I were in tears. I was so happy to be here again,” Norma added.

While it’s true that the Ruizes have been on the road now dang near all their lives, everything was in its right place upon their return. After all, they’re a military couple and they have become professional movers, in a way. In just three days, much of their home, located on South Lakeview off of Resaca Shores in San Benito, has already been decorated and only lacks a few more boxes to unpack. “Amando bought this house for us a couple years ago in anticipation of his retirement,” Norma said as she gave the News a tour of their comfy abode.

Studying for a Masters in History at what is now the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, Amando researched different branches of the military and settled on the Marines; this after realizing during his first semester at school that he sought something more challenging in life. He enlisted in the Marines when he was 24; by this point, he and Norma, both of whom met when Amando was 19 and she was 17, were in an on-again-off-again relationship. “We dated a couple months and he dumped me, and then we dated another couple of weeks and I dumped him. Nine years later God brought us back together again, and the rest – as they say – is history. I’m skipping a lot of details, though,” she laughed.

After earning the rank of Lt. Col., Amando began work as a supply officer – one who ensures a unit’s needs are maintained in a serviceable condition.

Throughout his service Amando had been deployed far and wide, including Japan. But it was his deployment to Al Anbar Province, Iraq in 2004 that proved the most difficult. “I was 44, and it’s a lot different deploying when you’re 44 than when you’re 29. The separation (from Norma) is actually harder,” he said.

Then there were a whole new set of challenges that awaited him in the desert. “In Iraq, my unit went over in February of 2005, but the way we had to go into Iraq was in a huge hurry, so there was a problem with exactly how much equipment we had. So I went over early in December of 2004 and had to basically review maintenance records. We had to chase down serial numbers and put them on the accounting records. All of which I was responsible for $2.4 billion of equipment,” he said.

“When we first got there we were working 16 hour days, because by the end of our day, the guys here at the states were going to work, and they wanted to know how things were going. So we’d get out of work, go to dinner and come back at 7 p.m. We’d end up working till about 1 or 1:30 a.m. letting them know what was going on. This lasted from December to about two weeks into February of 2005,” Amando added.

For Norma, the safety of her husband was now, more than ever, an issue of concern. “He would call me and he would ask how everything was? I would tell him everything was fine even though I was dying inside. I never let him know that I was missing him. I’d tell him I missed him, but not to the extent of what I was feeling, because I knew he was under a lot of pressure over there and I didn’t want to be a distraction when his life was in danger,” she said.

Her fears were heightened when, one night, Amando’s camp was hit by rockets coming over their tent. “The funny part was Col. Fitzgerald, who we all worked for, jumped out of bed when he heard the rockets and said, ‘Everybody follow me!’ He just put his boots on and ran to the bunker in his underwear. The rest of us were so groggy that we never got out of our racks,” Amando recalled. “The rockets hit about 100 yards from where we were. They’re not really good at aiming anything. So I don’t want to say that if you get killed it’s bad luck, but that’s essentially what it is. And once they start shooting rockets they send drones out, planes, to figure out where you are and take shots at the camp.”

It was a life Norma was all too happy to leave behind. And now that they’re finally home, Amando has already begun applying with US Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration. They’re jobs which, if hired, he wouldn’t have to start working until October, making this Amando’s first summer off since he was 13.

Amando and Norma have been married for 24 years.

To see this story in print, pick up a copy of the July 20 edition of the San Benito News. Or view our E-Edition by clicking here.