TX

By Caleb Pritchard

During his 22 months in the Army Air Forces, Joe Hernandez survived a remarkable 35 bombing missions in World War II Europe as the top turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator heavy bomber.

Hernandez remembered how he and other men in his unit, the 93rd Bombardment Group in the 8th Air Force became accustomed to the reverberations of exploding flak that would regularly meet them when they neared a target. On three different occasions, the flak damaged the aircraft enough to require Hernandez to make emergency landings in Allied territory.

When Eladio Martinez was growing up in Dallas, Texas, education was a priority. His father was a laborer and inspired his children to learn. Like his three younger siblings, Martinez graduated from Dallas Technical High School. Growing up, the Martinez children enjoyed outdoor activities such as fishing and hunting.

By Stacy Nelson

Post-World War II brought what Virgilio G. Roel termed "The Golden Era" for Mexican Americans.

"With the GI Bill, for the first time in the history of our country, and our ethnic experience, Mexican Americans had the opportunity to attend colleges and universities all over the United States" Roel said.

For more than six decades he was involved in the betterment of the social, labor, economic, educational and political advancement of Mexican Americans, and, later, Latinos in general, as well as other minority men, women and young people.

By Desirée Mata

By the time Esequiel Zamudio was drafted at age 21, he already knew hard work and hardship.

Zamudio started working as a young man for a government project called the National Youth Administration. As part of the NYA, he worked for four years building public works like San Antonio, Texas’, River Walk. After that, he labored as an auto mechanic, which he says he enjoyed.

“In those years, they didn’t have food stamps or Social Security. My dad didn’t have Social Security,” he said of his youth

By Jennifer Lindgren

"That's a picture of my great-granddaughter," said 81-year-old veteran Andres Ybarra, admiringly pointing out photographs in his home. "That's a picture of my -- all my grandkids and myself over there. And that one over there is when I was in the Army at Fort Jackson."

In the Army photograph, a younger Ybarra looked dignified and handsome in uniform. He fought at Normandy in World War II. A gentle-voiced, polite man wearing large dark-rimmed glasses, he gestured animatedly when talking about his war experiences.

By Robert Inks

When Raul Cantú Villarreal came home to Brownsville, Texas, in 1949 after serving in World War II, he had adjustments to make.

For one thing, Villarreal lost his right leg after stepping on a land mine.

"I thanked God I made it back," he said. "Not in one piece, but I'm still ticking."

Born Nov. 16, 1919, Villarreal, had left South Texas only one other time. Before fighting in the war from 1936 to 1939, he lived in the Pacific Northwest as a part of a Civilian Conservation Corps labor crew.

By Courtney Mahaffey

On Dec. 7, 1941, Harold Valderas, then a senior at George Washington High School in New York City, was doing his homework while listening to the radio when he heard the report about Pearl Harbor.

"Little did I realize, before long, I'd be in the service myself," Valderas said.

In the spring of 1942, at the age of 18, Valderas dropped out of high school early to enlist in the Army Air Corp Cadet Program. (There wasn’t a draft for 18- year-olds at the time.)

By Reid Worth

In June of 2002, 58 years after the battle in which he earned it, Oscar Torres finally received the Purple Heart for wounds received in action during the September 1944 assault on the island of Peleliu. In addition to earning that medal after being drafted in 1943, Torres, a Marine, witnessed a great deal of carnage on the tiny South Pacific Island.

Despite being drafted, Torres wasn’t reluctant to serve his country. He hadn't enlisted because his two older brothers had already done so; Torres simply stayed behind to help his family until he was called.

By Israel Saenz

A long, jagged scar marks Gilberto Roque Torres' right forearm, a permanent reminder of a summer day in France that would be his last in combat. Torres doesn't remember too many dates of events that occurred during his military service, but a glance at the 60-year-old scar can bring August 7, 1944, back to him as if it were a day last week.

That day marked the end of his World War II service in war-torn France – specifically, Brittany -- and the beginning of his return to the quiet life of rural Central Texas.

By Aaan Zukowski

María Isabel Solis Thomas remembers the day as if it were yesterday: She and her sister, Elvia, are standing on a dock at a Richmond, Calif., shipyard, waving goodbye to sailors boarding American ships destined for battle during World War II.

Thomas recalls a young sailor asking for one of her tiny cross earrings. Not one to part easily with any of her jewelry, Thomas remembers Elvia’s shock when she gladly removed the earring and gave it to the sailor as a going-away memento -- even though she’d never see the sailor again.