By Nicolas Martinez
When the government called Hilario Cavazos Jr. to war in October of 1943, he was in his senior year at Laredo's Martin High School, working his way toward college. He asked for an extension to finish high school, but to no avail -- the need for capable men was too great during World War II.
By Laura Radloff
As a young man, Julius Casarez didn’t know exactly what he was getting himself into when he enlisted in the Army.
"My brother told me that if I enlisted sooner rather than later, I could pick where I wanted to be stationed," said Casarez, 82, who now lives with his wife, Trinity Castruita Casarez, in Austin, Texas.
Little did he know that when he enlisted, the Japanese were only a few days away from bombing Pearl Harbor, and he’d be forced to go where the Army told him to go.
By Anjali Desai
Cayetano Casados had a floating, front row seat for the historic Normandy Invasion of World War II.
"We were the first ship to be fired on and the first ship to fire in the invasion," said Casados of the campaign that led to the allied victory over Germany.
"We had some very close calls. Sometimes there would be shrapnel all over you. But I was very fortunate, I only lost one man," he said.
By Yvonne Lim
Growing up in Southern California during the 1920s and 1930s, Richard G. Candelaria would bike up to the top of Mulholland Drive to watch the P-38 twin-engine fighter planes take off and land from Burbank. Candelaria read magazine articles about World War I bi-planes, about people like the Red Baron and the Lone Eagle; they inspired him as a boy.
“I wanted to be a fighter pilot,” he said. “That was my one wish.”
By Katie Kennon
Carmen Bozak's only memory of Dec. 7, 1941 -- the day Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese -- is of a good friend and co-worker being stranded after her date heard about the attack on the car radio. The woman's date stopped the car in the middle of nowhere and told her to get out because he had to return to his base.
A policeman picked up Bozak's friend from a rural Virginia road and drove her to a nearby Salvation Army office, where she was given a bus ticket home to Washington, D.C.
By: Emily Burgess
Placida P. Barrera vividly remembers her childhood days in the dry heat of Guerra, Texas, also known as "El Colorado" Ranch, where she’d help her father plant corn, pumpkins and watermelon.
Just as clearly, she recalls traveling thousands of miles and hundreds of hours across land and water with her husband, Air Force Sgt. Raymundo M. Barrera, and their six children.
Two of the children were born in Japan, and Barrera also lived in Korea, where her husband was an adviser to the Korean troops.
By Ann Harbour
As the tower bells at the University of Texas at Austin rang "You're in the Army Now," Arnulfo “A.D.” Azios and fellow members of what was called the Enlisted Reserve Corps were called to duty. Judge Azios proudly recalls an article that ran on the front page of The Daily Texan, the university's student newspaper.
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 Luisito Caleon
The choppy seas north of Scotland were dark.
A dense fog enveloped the Navy ship loaded with ammunition destined for Normandy, the site of the beginning of the end of World War II.
The ship, on its way to help with the liberation of France, was stuck on uncharted rocks, and Higinio Albelo remembers he and his mates thought they were facing death.
"It was a 27-man gun crew. We were supposed to take care of the guns on ship and take care of the cargo. We were in a big convoy of close to 250 ships," Albelo said.
