Colonel Virgil Rasmuss Miller (November 11, 1900 – August 5, 1968) was a United States Army officer who served as Regimental Commander of the 442d Regimental Combat Team (RCT), a unit which was composed of "Nisei" (second generation Americans of Japanese descent), during World War II. He led the 442nd in its rescue of the Lost Texas Battalion of the 36th Infantry Division, in the forests of the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France.
Major Fernando E. Rodríguez Vargas, DDS (February 24, 1888 – October 21, 1932) was an odontologist (dentist), scientist and a Major in the U.S. Army who discovered the bacteria which causes dental caries.
Brigadier General Salvador Teodoro Roig Marietti, (November 9, 1907 – July 6, 1984), was the Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police Department under the Government of Luis Muñoz Marín, and Adjutant General of the National Guard under the Government of Roberto Sánchez Vilella.
Roig was appointed Chief of police of Puerto Rico for a second time in 1963, and he was subsequently appointed to the position of Adjutant General of the Puerto Rico National Guard. Among his accomplishments as a public servant stands have occupied the positions of Chief of Police of Puerto Rico, Military Assistant and Chief of Protocol of La Fortaleza (The Fortress) under the Government of Jesús T. Piñero. He was also exalted in the Puerto Rican Sports Hall of Fame for his exploits in the sport of archery target.
Major General Salvador Enrique Felices (August 13, 1923 – July 14, 1987) was the first Puerto Rican to reach the rank of major general in the United States Air Force. In 1957, he participated in "Operation Power Flite", the first round-the-world nonstop flight by a jet airplane.
José M. Cabanillas (September 23, 1901 – September 15, 1979), was a rear admiral in the United States Navy who as an executive officer of the USS Texas participated in the invasions of North Africa and the Battle of Normandy (also known as D-Day) during World War II.
First Lieutenant César Luis González (June 10, 1919 – November 22, 1943) was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Gonzalez was the first Puerto Rican pilot in the United States Army Air Forces, one of the first to participate in the July 1943 invasion of Sicily, and the first Puerto Rican pilot to die in World War II. His name is listed on the "Roll of Honor" of the 314th Troop Carrier Group World War II and his hometown Adjuntas and the capital of Puerto Rico, San Juan, have honored his memory by naming a street after him.
Víctor Manuel Blanco (March 10, 1918 – March 8, 2011) was a Puerto Rican astronomer who in 1959 discovered Blanco 1, a galactic cluster. Blanco was the second Director of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, which had the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere at the time. In 1995, the 4-meter telescope was dedicated in his honor and named the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope; it is also known as the "Blanco 4m."
Edmund Ernest Garcia (March 25, 1905 – November 2, 1971) was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy who commanded the destroyer escort USS Sloat during World War II and participated in the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and France.
Colonel Antulio Segarra Guiot (January 20, 1906 – September 14, 1999) was a United States Army officer who in 1943 became the first Puerto Rican in history to command a Regular Army Regiment. Segarra served as Military Aide to the Military Governor of Puerto Rico Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and during World War II commanded the 65th Infantry Regiment.
Major General Orlando Llenza (July 1, 1930 – March 11, 2021) was the second Puerto Rican to reach the rank of Major General (two-star General) in the United States Air Force. Llenza served as commander of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard (PRANG).