Kawika David Segundo

Hometown: Maui, Hawaii
Branch of Service: US Navy
Rank: Lieutenant
Awards: Fleet Marine Force (FMF) and the Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist (ESWS) Designators. Personal decorations include a Meritorious Service Medal, Purple Heart, Joint Service Commendation medal with combat device, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medals x 4, one with Valor, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals x 4, Combat Action ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation
Memberships: Military Order of the Purple Heart, American Legion 138
Theater: Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo


LT Kawika David Segundo is from Maui, Hawaii and enlisted in the United States Navy in 2001, commissioned as an officer in 2013 and retired in 2023. He was a Fleet Marine Force Corpsman assigned 2nd Battalion 2nd Marines and 3rd Battalion 6th Marines, deploying to Iraq three times and once to Afghanistan. He took part in Operation Dynamic Response, Kosovo; Joint Task Force, Horn of Africa, Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF I), OIF II, OIF VI and the 2021 withdraw Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations (NEO) in Kabul, Afghanistan.

In 2004, he deployed in support of OIF II as the senior Corpsman attached to CAAT Platoon, Weapons Company, based in Camp Fallujah and Mahmoudiyah, Iraq. While deployed, he participated in over 200 combat patrols, where his platoon sustained 10 Improvised Explosion Devices and two Vehicle Born Improvised Explosion Device attacks. David was wounded by a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) blast while conducting a night escort for a coalition unit through the infamous “Triangle of Death”.

After receiving a master’s degree in health care management in 2013 from Marymount University, he was commissioned as a Medical Service Corps Officer. David held positions as Patient Administration and Legal Officer, Inspector Instructor of 4th Medical Battalion, and a Plans, Operation, Medical and Intelligence (POMI) Officer for Task Force 51/5, 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) and U.S. Marine Central Command (MARCENT). While stationed at MARCENT in 2021, he deployed to Afghanistan, leading in the medical planning and execution of the Crisis Response-Joint Task Force in Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations of over 120k evacuees from Kabul, Afghanistan.

One of David’s proudest moments is when he signed up for the C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program. Four years after he entered into the donor registry, he was identified as being the only complete match for a six-year-old boy, Kyle, with severe aplastic anemia. The transplant was a success and Kyle made a full recovery. David and Kyle met in person a year later and continue to be friends.