Rudy Vela Garza
By Elliott Blackburn
For Raul de la Garza, the cratered landscape was a constant reminder of just how close the battlefield was. De La Garza remembers one particular evening when he and fellow soldiers were laying communications wire. The unit decided to spend the night in an abandoned house.
After catching up with the main body of the division the next morning, De La Garza said his communications section of his artillery unit marched back through the area where they had sought shelter the night before.
The house where they had slept had been leveled to the ground.