Commander

Antonio “Tony” Roman

ANTONIO “TONY” ROMAN

BIOGRAPHY

Antonio (Tony) Roman was born in a little town named Macdona, Texas to Crisanto and Juanita Flores Roman who had only two sons, Tony and Leonard. The boys grew up in San Antonio, Texas, Tony attended South San High School and joined the United States Marine Corp upon graduation.

After boot camp and ITR he was sent to Vietnam.  As a Marine his Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) was infantryman or “grunt”.  He was in combat in some fierce gun battles and firefights. Before his tour of duty was over Tony had been wounded twice in combat and was awarded two (2) Purple Heart medals. Before being shipped to Vietnam, Tony got married while on leave and his first born son Jim was born in February 1970 while Tony was in the jungle in the Quang Tri mountains.

After returning home Tony was blessed with two more sons, Mark Anthony and Michael Gerard. Tony went to work at Lackland AFB in administration and retired in 2006.  The hardship and sacrifice of combat duty in Vietnam would pale to what was to come, in April 2000 Mark and Michael were in a road rage altercation and Mark was killed, in November 2012 oldest son Jim died of heart failure. Instead of being bitter or angry he turned the hurt to helping fellow veterans.

Since Tony joined the Military Order of the Purple Heart has been instrumental in initiating major projects.  In 2005 he worked with Senator Leticia Van de Putte and Governor Rick Perry to achieve designation of IH35 from Laredo, Texas to the Oklahoma border as part of the Nationwide Purple Heart Trail.  A question lingered in his mind, why does a veteran that has earned 100% disability have to pay for the land he sacrificed for in the form of property tax.  In 2009 he again met with the Senator and Governor introduced and passed property tax exemption, Texas Code 11.131 for all Texas 100% disability veterans.  In 2018 Tony met with fellow Marine and   Today there are hundreds of pavers with name, branch and war/conflict around the monument.  At present Tony Roman is working on placing a statue honoring combat wounded from Korea, Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan. The statue, “Price of Freedom” is going to be erected in south San Antonio at VFW 9186.

Tony Roman’s motto, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.”

Semper Fi