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Diana Padro
Jose Orlando Calderon
Diana Padro
September 16, 2001
Copyright © 2001 The Washington Post Company. All Rights Reserved.
Every day when he got to work, Jose Padro would call his wife, Diana, at her office in the Pentagon, just to hear her laugh.
It wasn't a nervous giggle or an earsplitting chortle, he explained. "It was a kind of laugh like, 'I'm glad to talk to you.' I loved that. I would call her every day just to hear that," Padro said.
Diana Padro, 55, a staff accountant for the Department of the Army, had lived in Woodbridge for nine years -- the longest stretch of time their military family lived in one place. Their sons Jose, 23, and Juan, 19, are graduates of Potomac High School. Diana Padro, an outgoing woman, "immersed everyone in her energy," her husband said.
Though they were each born in Puerto Rico, Jose and Diana met at Fort Hood, Tex., where they were both stationed after finishing Army basic training. Diana left the service in 1982 but stayed involved with military life. She loved her job, for which she traveled often, her husband said. Every time she visited a new city or state, she brought home a kitschy refrigerator magnet. A quarter of their refrigerator displays them in tidy rows, including another magnet that reads "Diana's Kitchen."
Jose Padro said he first heard of the attack in the morning when he was watching television. He works nights, and Diana had already left for the day. When he heard the news, he said, "I got on the phone immediately to call my wife. The phone rang, but no one answered."
When the news came out that the plane had hit the Pentagon near the helipad, Padro knew his wife worked nearby. He remembered picking her up from the airport and seeing her point at her office.
"She said, 'That's my window. When the president comes in the helicopter, we all go to the window so we can see him,' " Padro said. "So I knew something had happened.
"I never expected anything like this."
-- Christina A. Samuels
Jose Orlando Calderon
September 17, 2001
Copyright © 2001 The Washington Post Company. All Rights Reserved.
Sgt. 1st Class Jose Orlando Calderon, 44, of Annandale, viewed the military as a way to advancein life. The job had taken him all over the world, but this week he and his wife had planned to take the first step in planting deeper roots: They were to meet with a real estate agent to discuss buying a home, Gloria Calderon said.
Jose Orlando Calderon was born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, and joined the Army 19 years ago after finishing school. While stationed in Bremen, Germany, 10 years ago, he met his wife, who was living in Germany with her sister. Three days after their marriage, Calderon was dispatched to the Persian Gulf conflict, where he served for seven months.
In 1992, Calderon was transferred to Newport News, Va. He spent most of 1996 in Korea, during which his family lived mostly in Gloria Calderon's native Guatemala. The family moved when Calderon was sent to Fort Campbell, Ky., and then to the Pentagon 19 months ago. He was a supply sergeant under the Army's deputy chief of staff for personnel, his wife said.
Calderon liked love songs and salsa music and spent most of his free time with his family.
"He was an exceptional father, a very good husband who has been dedicated to his family and to helping people," Gloria Calderon, 40, said through a translator. She said her husband had talked about retiring from active duty, though he hoped to continue as a civilian employee. "That was his life," she said.
In addition to his wife, Calderon is survived by a daughter, Vanessa, 10; a son, Jose Jr., 3, and in Puerto Rico by his parents, Saturnino Calderon and Petra Olmedo, and a sister.
Sewell Chan
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