Character Profiles: SPC Jorge "Junior Ric" Ricardo (Patreon)

  Specialist Jorge Ricardo was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1981. His family is second-generation American, with his grandparents coming over from Mexico in the 1950’s. Rather than working in agriculture, the family instead gravitated towards the railroad, with Jorge’s father working as a safety inspector for Union Pacific. 

Jorge Ricardo and Joe Rock met in Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood, where the initials of their names placed them next to each other on the roster and they were assigned to be “Battle Buddies” and terrorized by the same female Drill Sergeant. Joe and Jorge became good friends but each went back to their home states after Basic Training and AIT (Advanced Individual Training). They are reunited when Jorge is brought in to the 213th Battalion as a “fill” to boost the 213th’s troop strength to deployable levels. 

Jorge grew up in a fancy, fenced-community trailer park that is well maintained and considered nice, even exclusive. He was an excellent student, introspective and practical, and much smarter than his friend Joe Rock, but because he “came from a trailer park” he internalized a strange sense of inferiority as a kid. He often held himself back and was seen as the quiet one compared to the more outgoing Joe Rock. 

He is the only one in his family to serve in the military in any capacity.