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By Emma Graves-Fitzsimmons

Nothing prepared Val Martinez for the icy winter night he landed in Marseilles, France, with the 103rd Infantry Division to prepare for combat in World War II. Martinez would spend more than nine months as a tank commander advancing across Central Europe, but says the first night was the coldest he can remember.

His unit and their German adversaries were both under constant fire as each tried to gain ground on the other, he recalls.

"Once we got going, we spent a lot of time chasing them," Martinez said. "Our outfit was a good outfit."

By Jason Weddle

Tony Holguin would rather talk about golf than about the time he spent as a soldier in the Army during World War II. He even says he might very well have been the Tiger Woods of his day.

To Holguin’s credit, there aren’t many people who at 22 can claim to have beaten the legendary golfing champion Sam Snead by six shots in a professional tournament. The fact that Holguin is of Mexican American ancestry made the feat that much more impressive for its time.

By Wesley Monier

To fulfill a promise made many years ago to a young soldier friend killed in battle, Ferdinand “Fred” Gomez named his oldest son Raymond. The two men vowed that if one of them died, the other one would name his first son after the other.

"I respected him a lot," Gomez said of his friend, Sergeant Raymond Valencia. "He never smoked, he never drank . ... He was just a very beautiful role model."

By Barbara Gibbon

Despite being in an infantry unit that saw some of the most fighting during World War II, Joseph Diaz takes it all in stride. His memory hasn't faded over the years, and neither have the realities of fighting a war.

Diaz was born August 11, 1918, in Kansas City, Mo., where his parents, Jose Juan Diaz and Maria Garcia had emigrated from Nayarit and Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

By Alyssa Armentrout

When an officer interrupted training to ask, "Does anybody here play the trumpet?" Antonio Campos stepped up and raised his hand.

"I play the trumpet," he replied. Campos ended up getting assigned to one of nearly 500 Army bands that served during World War II.

He performed for the troops and played at Army dances in places like Italy and Egypt. He was the only Latino in his band.

Born on March 26, 1910, Campos was raised in Mexico as an only child. His mother kept house and his father was a farmer, enjoyed playing the violin.

By Kristen Clark

Homero Alvarado is a true American hero.

By Cheyenne Cozzalio

Brothers Ralph and Philip Antuna can joke now about the food they had to eat while stationed in Europe in 1944. But underneath the laughter is a note of relief they made it out of Europe alive after fighting in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

Sitting comfortably in his cozy living room in Hegewisch, Ill., a community located on the southeast side of Chicago, Ralph Antuna, 83, recalls how he had to search through knapsacks of dead German soldiers to find cold cuts, hunks of Limburger cheese and hard bread.

By Cheyenne Cozzalio

Brothers Ralph and Philip Antuna can joke now about the food they had to eat while stationed in Europe in 1944. But underneath the laughter is a note of relief they made it out of Europe alive after fighting in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.

Sitting comfortably in his cozy living room in Hegewisch, Ill., a community located on the southeast side of Chicago, Ralph Antuna, 83, recalls how he had to search through knapsacks of dead German soldiers to find cold cuts, hunks of Limburger cheese and hard bread.

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.