The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program is honored to announce the July 2025 story of the month has been selected to recognize the service of United States Navy Veteran, Chief Romeo Cruz. The United States Navy Memorial Stories of Service Program is privileged to honor the service memories of SKC Romeo Cruz thanks to HT2 Charles Atkins. The Following reflections were presented by USS Hector AR-7 Historian, HT2 Charles Atkins.

"We know him as Romy. He was born March 25th, 1947 in Barrio Mabolo, Town of Polo, Province of Bulacan, Philippines. It was a rural area outside of Manila about one-hour travel time. It was an area that was in poverty after the war and his family was no stranger to it.

Romy’s father had been a US Army guerrilla jungle fighter during World War ll. His father survived without capture, but Romy’s older brother and sister did not, who died at a younger age during the war.

As a small boy, he and his friend would go around the area digging up metal war artifacts to make money. One day they were home working on cleaning a large metal piece to take to the scrapper. It was very large and heavy, and they were thinking about how much money it would bring. It was not unusual to dig up old rifles and an occasional hand grenade.

When his father showed up, he started yelling at them to get it out of there! Romy and his friend took the bomb shell outside to a backyard “fish pond’ and threw it in. He recalls recognizing something similar when handling ammunition shells on USS Hector. That’s when it dawned on him the danger he and his friend almost were in as kids. They never went swimming there again!

Romy attended the local High school and because his father was a US Army veteran, he was able to attend college in Manila under the GI Bill, at Far Eastern University, He majored in Accounting. His four years of college experience helped him through the hard times when he enlisted into the US Navy in 1968. He said he was motivated to enlist to get out of the impoverished ghetto situation and to possibly get his US citizenship and come to the land of “Technicolor” to see the world and his dream, “to be a Navy pilot”.

Romy went through boot camp in San Diego and was in company 661. He had his first experience of ‘hazing” and name calling because of his Filipino heritage. He and some of his fellow Filipinos did their best to disregard this to overcome and attain their goals. He said that he did a lot of praying to get past the racial/ cultural indignities.

Romy was surprised that all Filipinos were to become stewards and they did not have any other ratings open to them. He went to Steward “A” School to learn how to serve white Navy Officers. He learned to set a table appropriately, cook, clean and make up the state rooms. It was interesting that many of his fellow Filipinos were college educated, like him, but found they were attending officer’s food and staterooms and cleaning toilets, not to mention doing their laundry. He said all this changed in 1970 when Admiral Zumwalt became the CNO of the Navy. Admiral Zumwalt was their hero. They were able to choose and transfer to other ratings. He chose to become a store keeper.

Coming aboard the USS Hector in 1969, Romy was assigned to the S-4 Division. He started working in the Officer’s Mess, wardroom, scullery, cleaning dishes and state rooms. In 1972, Romy moved to S-1 Division as a storekeeper. He did five years aboard the Hector. He served his General Quarters duties as a stretcher bearer, projectile handler and sometimes as a member of the shoring team. He also did Fantail watch in Vietnam with an M14 rifle. He was qualified as a Sharp Shooter and Expert Rifleman. Romy made Second Class and transferred to Long Beach Naval Station.

After 2 years, he transferred to the USS Proteus (AS-19) a submarine tender in Guam. He was getting sea duty, but Proteus never left the pier except during typhoon and sea trials for General Quarters training. He rose to first class petty officer and then transferred to Hawaii. It is there that he was initiated into the Khaki of a Chief Petty officer. He remembers that his Chief initiation was to dress up as a “lady of the night”. Then he had to “compete” with other initiates being dressed up and riding a seesaw with a bowling ball rolling back and forth while they were blindfolded. After that, there were slaps on the back and handed a cold beer. Romy ended his Navy career working at Naval Air Station Moffett Field, California.

He earned the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with one star, Vietnam Campaign Medal, Battle “E”, Humanitarian Service Medal, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Good Conduct award with three stars, the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, Sharp Shooter and Expert for Rifle, the Navy and Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbon.

Romy’s most memorable recollection of his service was making Chief Petty Officer. He said, being the boss, he was looked at differently. He said his first name became, “Chief” Cruz. He used his GI bill benefits to attend more college to help him qualify for the Chief rank.

His second career was in supply and procurement for Nasa- Ames Research Center Moffett Field in Sunnyvale, California. He recently retired after 20 years and is now enjoying his time with family, travel and benevolent organizations. He is a life member of (DAV) Disabled American Veterans, The American Legion, Vietnam Veterans of America and Armed Forces Veterans of America groups.Romy attended his first Hector reunion in 2004 and has attended every one with exception of Hagerstown in 2006. The USS Hector Association is the only ship reunion organization he belongs to. Romy attributes his life’s success, to his “trust in God”.”

The United States Navy Memorial honors United States Navy Veteran, SKC Romeo Cruz featured within this series titled, Tales from the Navy Log, Story of the Month. Each month, this series honors a Veteran’s story recorded by the Stories of Service Program at the Navy Memorial. To learn more about this story and to explore the Navy Memorial archive, visit the Navy Memorial Stories of Service site at https://www.navymemorial.org/stories-of-service