Hi, my name is Mauricio Rodriguez Jr. I am a 56-year-old Marine Corps Vet with my loving wife Sylvia of 33 years. We have two awesome children; the baby of the family is my 21-year-old daughter Katie. Our 32-year-old son Martin and his wonderful wife and mother to our baby 6-month-old granddaughter Sophia.
As for my story, just two years out of High School I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at 20 years of age. After Marine Boot Camp and Marine Combat Training I attended Field Artillery School at the primary Army Base in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Upon graduation I reported to my first duty station in 29 Palms Combat Center in California. Were upon my unit, Hotel Battery 3rd Battalion of the 11th Marines, deployed to Okinawa and Mount Fuji Japan in the same year of 1990. After training with the Japanese Self Defense Forces, we had two months left in our unit deployment when Saddam Hussein’s Iraq Invade the Republic of Kuwait on August 2, 1990.
Since our unit was highly focused on desert warfare and already on deployment in the pacific, which was among the few closest to the middle east, we were given the mission to respond. Within days we boarded a WWII era LST troop and equipment carrying ship named the U.S.S. Schenectady and sailed for the Persian Gulf. Upon landing on an eastern port of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia we quickly moved north to the Kuwaiti border where the invading Iraqi Army had occupied all of Kuwait.
This operation was called Desert Shield and since we were a small force our focus was on fallback tactics until forces from the states and allied nations arrived or we were overrun by the Iraqi Army if they decided to invade Saudi Arabia. The photo I have included was a Polaroid I took for my now deceased mother in case I did not survive my mission. It has special meaning for me.
Upon the arrival of said forces, our unit was among others that formed Task Force Ripper which was part of the spearhead into southern Kuwait in the ground assault phase of Operation Desert Storm. Upon breaching the Iraqi mine fields, we captured multiple enemy air bases and finally defeated the Iraqi Artillery outside the Kuwaiti International Airport. This was a major factor in the Iraqi’s fleeing and Saddam Hussein suing for a cease fire.
Upon my return to the states, I kissed the ground and was happy to be home. Soon after I met a beautiful girl with hazel eyes and married her 8 months later on Valentines Day in my Dress Blues. Too soon you might ask. Yes, but I knew from seeing her for the first time I knew she was the one. A year later, after my last deployment, I was a new father and received my honorably discharge. I then began my Correctional Peace Officer career with the California Department of Corrections sometime later.
By some misfortune I developed a case of Valley Fever (Coccidioides) when my immune system was weak while working through a time of multiple riots at the state prison I was in. My Valley Fever was disseminated in which I lost blood and had to be hospitalized. In the Intensive Care Unit my body began to bloat because I was near organ failure and eventual death.
By the grace of God and prayers, my body responded to a cocktail of medications. Within that cocktail there were significant amounts of steroids to keep me alive. Sadly, those said steroids began to damage my kidneys. After my 3 weeks stay in ICU with a total of 3 months stay at the Hospital I returned to work at a light duty capacity. Upon my return to work the hazardous prison work environment slowly deteriorated my kidneys further until I went on peritoneal dialysis just after retiring with 22 years of service.
In our retirement years, we try the best we can do with the limitations of a dialysis cycler to do the things we used to do before the failure of my kidneys. Such as basic chores, maintenance and repairs to our home, and travel. Especially travel to Davis, California 4 hours away to visit Katie, who earned her bachelor’s degree and is preparing to take the LSAT for Law School. And 3 hours away to visit Martin and his family, who also served in the Marine Corps as a 1st Lieutenant with service in Syria against the ISIS Caliphate. He now works at the same base we were both stationed at as a Firefighter Paramedic. We want to be there to spoil our little angel, baby Sophia.
I hope I did not bore you with my sob story, but it comes from the heart. And I understand that it may be difficult to receive a donated kidney since there are many people out there that are in similar or worse circumstances than mine. And it is not easy to voluntarily donate a part of your body to a stranger you have never known. But I can never thank someone enough for such a noble gift and will strive to be worthy of such a great gift in a second chance in life.
In closing, I wish to thank you for reading through my sob story and consideration of this Marine Corps Vet. I also wish to thank the Dove Organization for providing this service, which means a lot to us vets. Peace Be with You.
Mauricio Rodriguez Jr.
USMC Combat Vet
For medically cleared donors, giving the gift of life through living kidney donation has been proven to be very safe. DOVE will assist all prospective donors throughout the process and make sure they do not incur any out-of-pocket expenses related to the evaluation or surgery. A healthy person can live a normal life with one kidney and save Mauricio’s life with the other!
Your support, whether through spreading the word on social media or considering becoming a donor, can make a profound impact on his life and the life of his family!
Please click on the link below if you would like to learn more OR call (551) 233-1611