CPT Rubina Hartel

Rubina Rosete Hartel was born as Rubina Duyao Rosete on October 19, 1966 to Dr. Estaquio D. Rosete and Clemencia V. Duyao in municipality of Camiling in the northern province of Tarlac, Republic of the Philippines. The distant third child and only daughter in a family of three, Rubi was an avid reader and self-avowed tomboy. She could adeptly intermix wrestling with her older brothers with hours reading the works of Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson. Like every other academic experience that would follow, she graduated from elementary school and middle school in Camiling with honors. In pursuit of better opportunities for the family, the Rosete Family immigrated to Hawaii in 1981, where Rubi graduated near the top of her class from W. R. Farrington High School in Kalihi - a Honolulu neighborhood known better for its poverty and crime than its volcanic beaches. One of the few inspired students willing to leave the Islands, Rubi fought for and was accepted to the University of Southern California (USC), from which she graduated in 1989 with a Bachelors Degree in International Relations and Accounting.

After a brief and unsatisfying foray into the world of accounting, Rubi enlisted in U.S. Army in late 1989 with promises of becoming a military intelligence soldier and putting her International Relations and language skills to work. By 1991, she had graduated from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, with maximum scores in the Russian language. From there, she was assigned to the 501st Military Intelligence Battalion in Dexheim, Germany, where she met her future husband, Erik. In 1994 she was promoted to Sergeant but aspired to even greater leadership roles; as a result, she applied to Officer Candidate School (OCS) in 1994. Following her commissioning as a U.S. Army Second Lieutenant in the Finance Branch, Rubi was assigned to the 176th Finance Battalion in Taegu, South Korea, as the Disbursing Officer. Between these moves, Rubi and Erik were married in Sierra Vista, Arizona, in 1995. In 1996, CPT Hartel transferred to Wurzburg, Germany, where she served first as the Disbursing Officer and then later as the Battalion S3 (Operations Officer) for the 106th Finance Battalion. Despite having a very successful and promising military career, CPT Hartel selflessly sacrificed her ambitions to leave active duty after ten years of service in order to raise their growing family.

For more than the next decade, Rubi focused solely on raising the three daughters, while simultaneously developing a passion for running and fitness. From 1999 to 2013, Rubi ran over a half-dozen marathons, including Nashville's Rock-and-Roll Marathon, and countless shorter events such as the Army Ten-Miler, while expertly juggling three growing girls and a husband who was perpetually deployed abroad. In 2012, at the quiet urging of her husband, she transitioned from running to cycling and became an accomplished cyclist in the Colorado Springs area, finishing such events as the Copper Triangle and the Pikes Peak Hill Climb with respectable times. She will live on in the Strava results for Northern Colorado Springs for decades to come.

From 2010 to 2015, Rubi worked as an accountant, payroll clerk, and officer manager for Paul Davis Restorations, Skyline Products, B&M Construction, and Tepa LLC. During that time, she earned her Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Keller School of Management at DeVry University. Following a yearning resulting from her truncated active-duty career, Rubi decided to return to the US Army in 2015, joining the Colorado National Guard as a Space Operations Officer in the 117th Space Battalion. In 2016, she successfully completed the Army's Space Operations Officer Qualification Course and was eventually selected to lead a team for an upcoming deployment to Kuwait. In 2018, she returned to her military roots when she attended the Military Intelligence Officers Career Course to become a Military Intelligence Officer. At the time of her passing, she was in Washington DC to attend pre-deployment training for a combat deployment to Kuwait in the fall of 2019. Her excitement and joy at the prospect of deploying was captivating and uplifting.

Rubi was preceded in death by her mother Clemencia Duyao Rosete. She is survived by her husband, Erik, and their three daughters: Hanna, Sara, and Erika, as well as father, Estaquio Rosete, brothers Dr. Rollie D. Rosete (Dr. Florence Wandisan Rosete) and Mr. Reyno D. Rosete (Rebecca D. Rosete), in-laws, and numerous other family loving members.

Her military honors include the US Army Meritorious Service Medal, the US Army Commendation Medal (third-award), and the US Army Achievement Medal (third-award).