Manuel "Loco" Ortega was a member of Baker Team, John Rambo's unit in the Vietnam War. He was one of the most resiliant members, and one of the last in the unit to die.
Biography - from the RAMBO II novelization[]
In Morrel's novelization of the movie, Ortega was a weapons specialist who earned his nickname, "Loco", (which translates to 'crazy' in English) from constantly taking ever-increasingly dangerous risks during "snatch and grab" missions. During these missions, the team would kidnap suspected Viet Cong commanders in villages at night. On one occaision, he dressed up as a Vietnamese woman, walking up to an unsuspecting Viet Cong commander who grabbed him thinking he was a woman he could have his way with. Ortega lured him into the jungle where the Viet Cong commander started to undress him only to find out he was a man. Ortega was captured by the North Vietnamese along with John Rambo in 1971 and tragically tortured to death when he refused to give U.S military secrets. His body was never recovered.