Lorenzo Lizarraga

Lorenzo was born on January 26, 1944 on a ranch outside Calexico, CA, to Florencio and Lorenza (Molinar) Lizarraga.  He was the 2^nd of 5 children born to Florencio and Lorenza.  There is one remaining sibling, a younger brother, Ernie, who could not be with us today.  Felicitas, Robert, and Rosalia passed away before Lorenzo.

Lorenzo attended Jasper Elementary, 1^st to 8^th grades, in a 4 room country school, very close to his family home, and then attended and graduated from Calexico Union High School, class of 1961.

From the age of 8 Lorenzo was working on the ranch with his father, running cattle and lambs for Broadbent Livestock, before and after school.  He had his Social Security card when he was only 12 years old.  His sister, Rosie, told me once that their dad always treated Lorenzo like a man, even when he was young.  Because of this Lorenzo believed that he got his strong work ethics from his dad and they stayed with him the rest of his life.

After high school and some junior college, Lorenzo enlisted in the Army at age 17.  His father had to sign the permission form because of his age.  He signed up for 3 years of active service plus 3 years of reserves obligation.  His Army service began January 16, 1962.

He was first sent to Ft Ord in No. California for his basic infantry training, including military skills and weapons maintenance before he was sent to Ft Gordon, Augusta, Georgia.  There he attended Electronics Technical School, learning how to maintain crypto equipment. 

He was then deployed to Uijeongbu, Korea.  First he was transported to Inchon, Korea, on the US Naval Ship Barrett, arriving on June 20, 1962, and then on to Uijeongbu, near the DMZ, where his duties were to keep the classified crypto gear working and to protect the codes books.  His small and select team would send an intelligence summary to the Pentagon daily at 10 AM and 4 PM. This group had their own secure work area where even their officers could not enter.

Although the Korean Armistice had been signed in 1953 as an agreement to cease active fighting between North and South Korea, the DMZ remained the site of border skirmishes, so security procedures were very tight.

After 14 months in Korea, Lorenzo was transferred stateside, and assigned to Ft Bragg, North Carolina, to the Army’s 82^nd Airborne, D Company, 36^th Signal Battalion.  The work duty for this assignment was to be ready at all times to fly anywhere in the world, and possibly dropped in to set up classified communications back to the Pentagon within 24 hours.  His rank as of October 31, 1963 was Spec 4.

On January 16, 1965 Lorenzo was released from active duty and his name transferred to the US Army Reserves until December 31, 1967.  He received an Honorable Discharge and was sworn to secrecy for 10 years.  He could not even speak about his military assignments to family or friends for that period of time.                                                                                           

      Upon returning to civilian life, Lorenzo began his 36 year career at Pacific Telephone/ AT&T/ Lucent Technologies first in the Radio Department, using some of the skills he had learned in the Army plus electronic courses he pursued for many years.  He worked in the Imperial County and then San Diego areas for many years.  In the last years of his career, however, he was assigned to Mexico City, and then on to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as a Project Management Director and then as Sales Director, with his employees representing 22 different countries and cultures.  He was well respected for his technical, leadership, and communication skills, and was often sought out and sent to other locations to help out with equipment or project issues with other groups.  Lorenzo and his wife, Marsha Shields Lizarraga, lived out of the United States from 1995 through 2001 so that he could take on these international assignments.

They had married in 1977 and between them had 2 sons and 2 daughters, Traci Wilcox, Andrea Arvizu, Matthew Aguirre, and Lorenzo Lizarraga.  Today there are 14 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren in the family, all whom will be able to share Grandpa Lorenzo’s service and patriotism, now on display because of his Mt Soledad plaque. 

In 2013 Lorenzo began to ride his motorcycle with the San Diego Patriot Guard Riders, escorting fallen military heroes to their final resting places.  This seemed to spark a flame in him and he was soon consumed with patriotism and a desire to continue this work.  He loved the honor, respect, and camaraderie shown while escorting those military and first responders who had passed away.  In the years before his own death he had become the Regional Ride Captain for San Diego and Imperial Counties.  He loved his fellow riders.

Those of you who knew him best, also know that he was adventurous, funny, a man of many, many stories, a man of faith, a jokester, always teasing and playing with his grandchildren, a man with many talents, a hard worker, and always a good friend.  He was definitely loved by all those he touched.