A salute to service
- Sarah Barr
- Mar 27
- 5 min read
Miguel Dieguez retires from a career in the Navy
by Sarah Barr
Staff Writer
Submitted photos
Life is like driving the open road or sailing the ocean. You don’t always know the destination and the journey is the adventure.
When Wethersfield LIFE caught up with Capt. Miguel Dieguez, who recently retired from the U.S. Navy, he was cruising along Interstate 10 east in Panama City, Fla., more than 1,300 miles from his adopted hometown of Wethersfield.
His mission on this day was to get home to his wife and daughter in Jacksonville.
Dieguez was last in Wethersfield this past December. His entire family either still lives here or near here.
“Other than one uncle, I’m the only one who has left,” Dieguez said.
His family is from Spain. His earliest boyhood years were spent in Hartford’s South End. His fondest memories are with riding his bike to Goodwin Park and going to his parent’s restaurant after school, where the oldest of three children would help out.
“The restaurant business is a hard business” he recalled and credited his parents for “raising me right with a strong work ethic and character.”
In 1988, the family moved to Wethersfield. Dieguez was in eighth grade.
“Within a mile radius it covered 90-percent of my family,” he said.
He graduated from Wethersfield High School in 1993 and was captain of the tennis team and ran a little track. But he wanted to go into engineering because he was good at math and science.
“I applied to colleges, but not in Connecticut. I needed to get out and do things,” he said of his plan until his guidance counselor suggested military service academies. He talked to two WHS grads and altered his course.
“I said to myself, they’ll pay for this and I’ll have a job when I get out?”
His vision wasn’t good enough for the Air Force Academy. He was accepted to the Coast Guard and the Naval academies.
When asked why he selected the Naval Academy his answer was “I didn’t know I wanted to go.”
Recruiters came calling.
“I told them I was thinking of the Coast Guard. It was close (New London). And smaller,” Dieguez said.
Then the Navy recruiter delivered his closing argument.
“Congratulations,” Dieguez recalled distinctly. “But why would you go to the minor leagues when the majors are offering you an opportunity?”
He went to the academy in Annapolis, Md., sight unseen.
“Here I was. The first in my family to go to college. The first to volunteer to go to the military. My parents are like, are you sure?”
He was. On July 5, 1994, right out of high school, he bravely stepped into the unknown.
They shaved his head on Induction Day. He learned how to salute. He took an oath. He said goodbye to his parents and couldn’t talk to them for two weeks. He discovered he was partially color blind.
“Pinks and light greens get me,” he said.
“I wanted to be Maverick. I grew up in the ‘Top Gun’ generation. That shattered my dream. I couldn’t drive submarines or drive ships,” he added of the early reality checks.
Another wake-up call was the competition. Dieguez had graduated in the top 20 of his high school class. He thought his classmates were amazing. Then the Naval Academy came along.
“I got to the academy thinking I’d be in with talented people but the entire class of midshipmen were all-state athletes and valedictorians. I felt like such an average guy. I never worked harder to just keep up,” he said.
“I was an alternate when I got in,” he said of the gut punch. “That put a chip on my shoulder for four years. I wanted to prove that I belong here.”
When it was time to call his parents, he could emphatically say that he had fallen in love with the place.
However, love isn’t always easy. After a self-described “crappy” first semester, Dieguez developed good study habits and met like-minded people who “were willing to serve and to sacrifice and be the best version of themselves in service of the country they loved.”
His hard work paid off. He graduated in the top 10 percent of his class.
The Navy has a community of engineers that maintains bases around the world. It’s called the Civil Engineer Corps. About 1,300 engineers and architects make up this strategic group. Dieguez was part of it for 28 and a half years.
The Navy took him to 50 countries around the world, something he calls unbelievably rewarding and fulfilling.
“We rebuilt lives and places. We helped stabilize communities and introduce hope. We showed the flag of a country willing to invest in them” he said of places like Afghanistan, Bosnia and Ukraine.
As an avid reader of history, one of the most amazing places he visited was Pompeii.
“To see those tiny specks of land in the middle of thousands of miles of ocean – it was a humbling experience to see that. To see the memorials,” he said.
He also learned of the importance of allies and had the luxury to visit many of these places such as the United Kingdom and France and saw how they respected the U.S. Navy.
Yet of all the exotic places he traveled, his true call of duty turned out to be his last duty station in Jacksonville, Fla. It’s where he met Pamela, his wife of 20 years, and where they raise their 12-year-old daughter Mia. It is also where he retired on Nov. 30, 2025.
Dieguez now works for HDR, a 108-year-old architecture and engineering firm, where he still supports national defense. But as he looks forward, he cannot help but reflect upon history and patriotism.
“The Greatest Generation will always be special. But I’m proud to serve with those who raised their hand after 9/11 knowing they were going into a combat zone,” he said.
“I consider myself a lucky and blessed guy. I fondly look at my career, one I tripped into. I met people who always knew they’d serve. I made the best decision I could have made as a 17-year-old. I’m a better human being because of this. It’s what I needed at a time when my country needed me.”