Herson Calitto Jr joined the Salvadorean army in 1983 and died in combat on 19 February 1984, when the helicopter he was traveling in was brought down by guerrilla forces.
"On October 23, 1984, Lieutenant Colonel José Domingo Monterrosa Barrios, considered by members of the Salvadoran army to be one of their best strategists, was assassinated in Joateca, Department of Morazán, when the helicopter in which they were preparing to take off exploded.
Along with the commander of the Third Infantry Brigade, the commander of the San Francisco Gotera special command training center, Lieutenant Colonel Napoleón Herson Calito; the chief of operations of that same major institution Nelson Alejandro Rivas, and the commander of the Atlacatl battalion, Major José Armando Azmitia Melara, the pilot lieutenants, Airman Pilot Second Lieutenant Mauricio Antonio Duarte Arévalo; Cadet Second Lieutenant Oscar Villega Guevara; Cadet Second Lieutenant Arturo Aparicio Erazo, artillery soldiers, Manuel Gómez Martínez and Miguel Ángel Martínez; the priest Carlos René Guillén, sacristan Juan de Dios Andrade, and 3 members of the Press Committee of the Armed Forces, COPREFA: Juan Paulino Rivas, Joaquín Baltazar del Tránsito Reyes and René Mauricio Quintanilla.
Official spokespersons described the news as "tragic", not only because of the 14 lives lost, but also because of the hard blow that the guerrillas inflicted on the Salvadoran army.
To replace Monterrosa at the head of the III Brigade, he appointed Lieutenant Colonel Miguel Antonio Méndez, who commanded a special battalion."