Somalia Traffic Accident Claims Tustin Soldier’s Life

A soldier from Tustin was killed in a traffic accident in Somalia, it was disclosed Wednesday, one of six servicemen--two from Orange County--who have died in Operation Restore Hope since the mission began in December.

Pvt. Donald Doyle Robertson 28, was riding in a five-ton truck about 25 miles north of Baidoa late Tuesday when a Somali ran into the road and the driver swerved to avoid hitting him, causing the truck to overturn, according to Staff Sgt. Jeff Sammons, an Army spokesman. The driver, whose name was not released, suffered minor injuries, Sammons said.

“I think he made a difference, he was over there doing a humanitarian mission, that’s what he would have wanted,” said Robertson’s mother, Marjorie Lenenberg of Tujunga, Calif. “I work in a cancer hospital. I deal with death on a daily basis, but it’s not in your family. It’s not the same.”

Another U.S. soldier died early Wednesday after the vehicle he was riding in struck a land mine north of Belet Huen, said authorities who refused to identify the man until his family can be notified.

Robertson, who was raised in Fallbrook and Temecula, attended Fallbrook High School and then moved to Orange County, where he worked as a plumbing installer in the construction business for the past decade.

He joined the Army last June, and was married in Las Vegas on Election Day to Lorenda (Lori) Langan, a Navy veteran and the daughter of an Air Force officer. Robertson, an Army mechanic specializing in chemical equipment repair, was based in Ft. Hood, Tex. He went to Somalia Jan. 20 with his unit, the 157th field service company.

A motorcycle lover who collected electric trains and raced cars as a child, Robertson is remembered for his helpfulness, sense of humor and his temper. Recently, he had studied astronomy and astrology for fun.

“He was always an outward-going personality. He loved people in general,” his mother said. “He could take anything apart and put it back together. I mean things I didn’t want taken apart--toasters, waffle irons. . . . He always liked to be a help.”

Lenenberg recalled when Donald, the eldest of her three children, encouraged his younger brother to jump off the roof using an open umbrella as a parachute. Robertson’s close friend, Janice Padgett, remembered him throwing his shoe against the wall when the lace broke.

“It’s kind of strange that he would be the passenger and get killed . . . you should see his speeding ticket list,” laughed Padgett, who shared a Tustin condominium with Robertson and his wife. “It seems strange that he had to go all the way around the world to get killed while driving in a truck.”

Robertson is the second Orange County soldier to die in a traffic accident in Somalia in the past month. Pvt. David J. Conner, 19, who grew up in Santa Ana, suffered fatal injuries in a Feb. 7 crash that occurred while he was taking water to troops.

“He always wanted to go into the Army, that was just something he always wanted to do,” Padgett said. “Something about being a man and going into the service and that kind of an attitude.”

In letters and telephone calls from Africa, Padgett said, Robertson complained of the heat, and joked about the danger of camels crossing the road.

“He’s taken on a whole different personality since he joined the service,” Padgett said. “To me he’s like a big brother, the kind that always torments you and terrorizes you but you love anyway.”

Robertson’s younger sister, Donna Brown of Oakland, said the soldier was “the best big brother a little girl could want.” She still has the doll Robertson gave her on her 12th birthday.

“I’ve lost somebody who you can’t replace,” Brown cried in a telephone interview. “It’s hard for me to imagine not being able to talk to him and not being able to say I love him, and that I miss him. I miss him already. It’s not going to get any easier.”

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