Florentino Tafoya Jr.

October 6, 1942 – November 4, 1967

Albq Marine Killed in War. Marine Corps Sgt. Florentino Tafoya, 25, was killed in action Saturday at Thua Thien Hue just two months after going to Vietnam. He had been a Marine for seven years. In the heavy fighting since going to Vietnam, he wrote home about being near a native village close to the battle zone. He described the men’s struggle to keep leeches off their bodies. He received multiple fragmentation wounds to the body from “hostile explosive devices,” a telegram from the War Department said. He was a graduate of Valley High School and had lived in Albuquerque all his life. He made his home as youth with an uncle, Valentín Lucero of 1830 Rio Grande NW. He was a member of San Felipe Catholic Church. Surviving are his widow; his father, Florentino Tafoya of Polvadera; mother, Mrs. Adelia Tafoya of Cudahy, California; six brothers, two sisters, grandparents, four uncles and five aunts. Funeral arrangements will be by Salazar and Sons Mortuary.