Fidel Ventura “Smoke” Segundo was born on April 24, 1894, in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. He was the son of Luciano Segundo and Paula Ventura. He was married to Angela G. Agcaoili. He studied at Manila High School and enrolled at the University of the Philippines as a pre-med student before entering the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1917. He trained further at the Air Service Observation School (1920–1921), the Field Artillery School (1925), and the Cavalry School (1926).

Commissioned in the Philippine Scouts, he served in artillery commands at Camp Stotsenburg and with the 24th Field Artillery, earning promotions to captain in 1926 and major in 1936, while also teaching military science at the University of the Philippines. In 1936, he became a colonel in the Philippine Army, organizing its field artillery branch, and was later promoted to lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army in 1940. He commanded the 2nd Infantry Regiment, became Superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy in 1941, and by December was promoted to brigadier general, taking command of the 1st Regular Division, which fought in southern Luzon and Bataan until surrender in April 1942.

Fidel was imprisoned at Capas Concentration Camp and later paroled. He aided the underground resistance, but was arrested with his son on December 19, 1944, and after interrogation was executed on January 6, 1945, and was buried in an unmarked grave. His name is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines. A portion of the Pan-Philippine Highway just north of his hometown, Laoag, bears the name Gen. Fidel V. Segundo Avenue, and in December 1969, a historical marker was installed in Laoag to honor his memory.

Source of information: en.wikipedia.org, weremember.abmc.gov