Captain Mario Fajardo (1961-1991) emigrated from Ecuador to Flushing, Queens, with his family in 1973. He attended John Bowne High School, and graduated from the Citadel Military College in Charleston, South Carolina, with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He joined the army upon graduation in 1984. He was stationed in Korea, Fort Bragg, and Honduras. While at Fort Bragg N, in 1988, he coordinated planning and construction of a much-needed school recreation area in Fayetteville, and in Honduras he helped to build an airstrip and school buildings.

In 1990, Captain Fajardo was sent to the Persian Gulf as a member of the 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Airborne), 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) of the XVIII Airborne Corps. On February 26, 1991, shortly before Operation Desert Storm ended, Fajardo was commanding a company of men in an operation to remove unexploded American bomblets from an airfield in Iraq. A pile of bomblets exploded, killing Fajardo and six of his men. Fajardo was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.