Daniel Martin Caballero
- Share via
Two flags fly outside the Caballero home in Houston: the Stars and Stripes, and the dark-blue, yellow-fringed banner bearing the seal of the United States Navy.
Daniel Martin Caballero, 21, enlisted in the Navy shortly after graduating from Houston’s Stephen F. Austin High School in 1998.
“When the recruiters came to the high school, he was awed by the idea of joining,” said his mother, Carmen Caballero.
After basic training and a year of school in Chicago, Caballero was assigned to the Pentagon as an electronics technician third class. He lived in the barracks at Bolling Air Force Base.
His Pentagon office was located directly in the path of the plane that plowed into the building Tuesday morning.
Three years ago, when Caballero told his parents he wanted to join the Navy, they asked him over and over, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“We thought he was safe,” said Carmen Caballero of her only son. “We were wrong.”
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
