Photo by Skip Murray
Meet this week’s “Special Person of the Week:Lieutenant Colonel James Marques
Lieutenant Colonel James Marques was born on August 28, 1964 in Somerville, Massachusetts. He grew up with two brothers younger than him. The middle brother, who he was close to, died early in life while the youngest brother is currently a high school teacher teaching Math and Computer Science.
His father was a postman is whole life and his mother was a keypunch operator who later worked as a banker in her later years. His father happened to be a rifleman in the Korean War for the 5th Regional Combat Team. He was injured in July of 1953 and was awarded the Purple Heart.
As a result, James had his father honored with a street sign at the top of the street the family grew up on in May of 2017.
He graduated from Somerville High School in 1982, then joined the Army Reserve in 1983. As a result, he has had a lot of his schooling paid for the military. He graduated Bunker Hill Community College with an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts, a Bachelors at UMass Lowell in Electrical Engineering Technology, as well as several trade schools studying electrical and mechanical design.
He worked as a Software, Firmware & Hardware Quality Assurance Engineer for private companies, including Raytheon and 3M, before he got called to Iraq the first time in 2004.
As a Captain in the Army National Guard, James served in Tikrit, Iraq for one year in 2004 with the 42nd Infantry Division as a Maintenance Officer in the Division Headquarters. When he came back from Iraq he worked at Fort Dix, NJ as a trainer for one year before going back to Iraq in 2008 as a Civil Affairs Officer in Shaab district of Baghdad, with the 4th Infantry Division, for one year.
Later, in 2010-2011, as a Major, he served in Stability Operations of the Division Staff of the 101st Airborne Division in Parwan, Afghanistan on Bahgram Air Force Base for one year.
Today, James serves down at Fort Hood in Texas as a Simulations Officer with First Army training Army Reserve and Army National Guard units still going overseas to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Africa. He is currently in his second year of the US Navy War College on his way to a Masters Degree in Defense Studies. He plans to work with the military after he retires from the military in two years.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, Lieutenant Colonel James Marques.
Our hats are off to his true Somerville spirit!
We here at the Somerville News Weekly salute you for everything that you do to make Somerville a better place.
Congratulations!
I went to high school with James Marques and he was definitely definitely a shy quiet person. As time has moved on it is quite obvious he has thrown out any type of physical fitness in his life and is now tackling sleeping watching TV and family feud. He is a huge Steve Harvey fan. The lieutenant colonel is hoping one day to be on the show as one of his last wishes as the remaining years of his life start to whine down due to his physical limitations and his shortness of breath, Causing his weight to Balloon
I happen to know the lieutenant colonel and he is a wonderful wonderful man He personally told me how to cook and learning from the lieutenant colonel has been one of the best experiences of my life One of his greatest dishes is milk and cereal