Tony Santiago

Santiago is among the people who were interviewed and who are featured in the documentary On Two Fronts: Latinos & Vietnam; directed and produced by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Mylene Moreno. The documentary, which aired on PBS in September 22, 2015, examines the Latino experience during the Vietnam War. He was interviewed, together with fellow veteran Oscar Urrea, by PBS Horizante host Jose Cardenas and Univision newscaster Jorge Valenzuela, where he expressed his personal experiences, prior to the showing of the documentary.

On April 2010, Santiago discovered and wrote about Lt. Augusto Rodriguez a Puerto Rican who served in the American Civil War. It was the first time that a link in the American Civil War was made between Puerto Rico and the United States. Rodriguez was thus the first known Puerto Rican veteran of the United States Armed Forces. The significance of this discovery is that, until then, it was believed that Puerto Ricans had not served in the United States military prior to World War I. Puerto Rico's Secretary of State, Kenneth D. McClintock, named Santiago "Puerto Rico's foremost military historian."

One email received from a reader of his articles led to Santiago serving to bridge two families that had lost track of each other for many years. It happened in 2007, when Santiago united U.S. Army veteran William W. Kouts with the family of the late David M. Gonzalez. Gonzalez had sacrificed his life to save Kouts during World War II.

In 1990, Santiago moved to Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife and children. At this point he reflected, "the only role models and heroes for Latino children were El Zorro, the Cisco Kid and Speedy Gonzales and," he said, "school textbooks failed to mention the many contributions that Latinos had made to the formation of our country [the United States]."

Santiago served with the 2nd Battalion 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division in the Vietnam War in the 81 MM Mortar, and later in the Military Police as well.

Upon finishing his tour with the U.S. Marine Corps in 1975, Santiago enrolled at the Interamerican University in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Business Administration in 1979. In Puerto Rico, he met Milagros, the woman that would become his wife. They married in 1971 and had three children together.

In addition to his military history research and writing, Santiago is also a free lance photojournalist for The Arizona Republic. He is also a member of the national steering committee of "Borinqueneers Congressional Gold Medal Alliance," which sought the Congressional Gold Medal for Puerto Rico's 65th Infantry Regiment, and serves in the "Latino Alliance Advisory Board."

Antonio Santiago Rodríguez (born March 9, 1950) — better known as Tony the Marine or as Tony Santiago — is a United States Marine veteran, writer, and military historian from New York City, New York, focused mostly on the military history of Puerto Rico and its service members.

For his work, Santiago was recognized by the 23rd Senate of Puerto Rico for being "one of the main contributors of content related to Puerto Rico in the open online encyclopedia known as Wikipedia". The Senate also recognized him as one of the main writers on subjects which relate to Puerto Rico, and an important historian of the Puerto Rican military experience. According to Phoebe Ayers, member of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, this may be the first time that the English Wikipedia has been mentioned in a parliamentary or congressional resolution of this type. She also stated that it is probably the first time that contributions to English Wikipedia have been cited in a formal governmental award, too.