By Haldun Morgan
"We were in Saipan when I had my first taste of combat. Not combat, [but] of bombs being dropped on us, trying to sink us. And I'm staring at the airplanes dropping, and I'm sure everyone is gonna hit us."
Before his initiation into World War II, Alvino Mendoza wondered what it would be like.
By Yazmin Lazcano
The experience of stepping over hundreds of bodies -- the sounds of mine blasts, surf pelting the coast and bullets whizzing overhead filling his ears -- is as vivid to Porfirio Martinez today as it was 55 years ago.
For Martinez, WWII isn’t over. He fought in major battles, and continues fighting today through nightmares of the D-Day landings.
Martinez recalled the 'tiradero' (the mess) of thousands of bodies on the beach during the second wave of D-Day landings.
"Dead. All dead," he said.