Army

By May-Ying Lam

Manuel Robles, an 85-year-old World War II veteran, grasps a gold- and black-edged frame with steady fingers. In the center is a faded black and white photograph with a beaming young soldier frozen in time.

By Eva Hernandez

The air is rife with the sounds of men preparing for battle on the front lines. This is the real deal, and Private Joe Vargas is ready. He lumbers off the back of the Army truck – just barely – and moves forward.

Two bandoliers of M1 clips are strapped to his chest and he is armed with as many grenades as he can carry. The first lieutenant meets him with a critical eye.

By Laken Litman

One would think returned war veterans would try blocking battle out of their minds forever. But that’s not at all the case with Raymundo Rafael Martinez.

Having served as a Tech Sergeant in the Army’s 807th Engineer Battalion for four years during World War II, Martinez now spends much of his time volunteering with The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, a group that honors war veterans worldwide, of which Martinez became a member after his WWII welcome home party in 1946.

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By Ashlyn Shadden

When Felix Longoria enlisted in the Army in October of 1940 as a 20‐year‐old from the South Texas town of Beeville, he had no idea what he was getting into.

Four years later, the United States was in the midst of World War II, and he was receiving the Purple Heart for getting recently wounded in Brest, France.

Longoria and his squad loaded up in trucks bound for Brest, where they came upon an image for which many were unprepared: Vehicles, dead Germans, tanks and trucks as far as one could see were all that was left.

By Eric Latcham

When her new husband shipped off for the Philippines, Olga Delgado Flores was pregnant back home in El Paso, Texas.

Only 15 years old when she married 18-year-old Ramón Flores, she had dreams of a better life for her family and had been encouraged by a local principal to go to college. Flores soon learned, however, that traditional-household caregivers had limitations placed upon them.

By Erika Jaramillo

World War II veteran Natividad Campos says he felt like an old man by the age of 9.

Kidnapped by his father at age 3 and raised by his Spanish-speaking grandmother, Campos, the oldest son of four, had no formal education when in 1930 he entered St. Valentine Elementary School in Valentine, Texas.

“It was hard for me. I wasn’t use to being around so many kids at one time,” said the 87-year-old, born on Christmas, 1921.

By Jeff Heimsath

Conrado P. Ramirez said that having served in World War II opened many doors for him and many other Latinos.

"We had the opportunity to go to college," Ramirez said. "We saw other parts of the world than just Alpine, Texas. To me, our opportunities expanded considerably, it was up to you to take advantage of it."

Ramirez did not always have such opportunities; his parents were immigrants from Mexico, and money was tight when he was growing up.

By Michelle Witters

San Antonio native Francisco Vega survived D-Day on Omaha Beach unscathed. That’s not to say he didn’t suffer acute pain later during the war, however.

By Meredith Margrave

Jose Rosales’ family may not be from this country, but Rosales has always been an American.

Growing up in Campbellton, Texas, nearly an hour away from San Antonio, Texas, Rosales was one of eight children in his family.

“Sometimes it was good, sometimes bad, and we struggle[d],” he said. “My sisters worked at the restaurants. Some of them graduated school, some didn’t; I didn’t even earn my high school diploma. I got it when I got discharged from service in Arkansas.”

By Jocelyn Ehnstrom

As a young kid, Julius Moreno enjoyed playing baseball, tending to his family’s farm animals at their home in San Antonio and singing in his neighborhood band called “The Holly Boys.”

But the first priority of Moreno’s father, Julio Moreno, Sr., was making sure all nine of his children, the second oldest of whom was Moreno, got a good education.