Arnif G. Nerio
By Caren Panzer
Arnif G. Nerio felt his life was really coming together in the fall of 1942. While so many were still out of work, he’d just landed a job at General Motors in Saginaw, Mich.
Just three months earlier, he’d married Trinidad Ayala, and they were expecting a child.
When he was drafted into the U.S. Army on Dec. 4, 1942, his life changed.
Nerio pleaded with the officials to let him wait until his daughter was born. The Army assured him that his family would be taken care of and shipped him to Little Rock, Ark., for basic training. He was 20.