Donald Anthony Gallegos

We lost our beautiful boy Donald Anthony Gallegos Jr. on October 11, 2021.

Donald, or Anthony, as he was known to us, was serving on board USS Shoup at the time of his death in San Francisco.

After graduating from Del Norte High School, Donald kicked around for a few years, attending CNM for a couple of semesters, working at McDonalds, Walgreens and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. When he pooled enough money together, he took a month-long trip to Japan where he and a mate hiked the islands top to bottom. Vowing he’d find a way back, Donald joined the Navy and hoped for a west coast command.

While USS Shoup was going thru scheduled yard maintenance, Donald took a temporary assignment to USS Princeton which was getting ready to deploy to the Persian Gulf as part of the USS Nimitz Strike Group, the first carrier strike group to deploy under COVID-19 protocols and ended up making the longest deployment since the Vietnam War.

Donald was a principal in the establishment of “Indigenous People’s Day” in Albuquerque and was honored by the New Mexico Legislature for his work with Camp Corazones, a camp for children with HIV. He marched for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, police accountability and reform and immigrant rights. He was an advocate for the houseless, a supporter of Gloria La Riva and active in the LGBTQIA+ community.

How could Donald not be remembered for his smoking jackets, fur coat and long cigarette holder, his love for James Bond martinis, Godzilla movies, Herman Wouk novels and somewhat sardonic personality?

Born to retired Navy Chief Donald Gallegos Sr. and Bernadett Charley in Lawton, Oklahoma October 13, 1992, Donald was an enrolled member of Ohkay Owingeh. Surviving are his parents and siblings, David (USN), Patrick, Gabriel, Ibraham (USA), Olivia and Chloe (USN); nephew Cody Briscoe and nieces Lucia Charley Gallegos and Sara Pncke Gallegos; grandmothers Dorothy Valdes and Malva Chuesberg. He was preceded in death by grandparents Conrad Gallegos, John David Charley and step-grandmother Choe Young.

Please consider a donation in Donald’s name to Camp Corazones: https://kids-camp.org