The Combat Diaries: True Stories from the Frontlines of World War II by Guardia Mike

Author:Guardia, Mike [Guardia, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magnum Books
Published: 2022-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Marines storm the beaches of Eniwetok as an SBD Dauntless flies overhead.

9.

Iwo Jima: The Shadows of Suribachi

Gilberto Mendez: From the Mexican Army to the US Marine Corps

Gilberto “Gil” Mendez was the youngest of seventeen children (nine boys; eight girls) born to Sebastian and Maria Arroyo Mendez. His parents had fled Mexico during the Revolution of 1910, settling in San Antonio, Texas, where Gil was born. “They were legal residents,” he emphasized, “and what they knew best was agriculture.” Like many others who had fled from the Revolution, Gil’s parents sought refuge across the border in Texas. “So, they settled down, and they worked in seasonal agricultural crops…fruit and vegetables, they were the most abundant crops to be harvested.”

Although money was tight, Gil recalled that his family was exceptionally close. The older children were expected to work, while the younger siblings attended school. Growing up on the rural outskirts of San Antonio, Gil recalled that there were “no hospitals, no clinics, no nothing” – thus facilitating the use of natural remedies handed down through generations of Mexican tradition. Gil proudly recalled that each of his siblings were born at home with the assistance of a midwife. No doctors or fancy obstetrics needed.

“Unfortunately, when we came of age,” said Gil, “the Depression had already started.” This led to a severe backlash against Mexican immigrants living in the American Southwest. Known as the “Mexican Repatriation,” the US government deported more than 80,000 Mexicans, many of whom were legal residents like the Mendez family. “I was never able to comprehend how you can expatriate an American citizen,” – Gil and many of his siblings were, after all, American-born. “We were repatriated to Mexico [but] we were not citizens of Mexico.” Gil claimed Mexican heritage, of course, but not Mexican citizenship. Yet, because his parents were Mexican-born, the Mendez family had no choice but to accept deportation. “The government should never have sent us back to Mexico,” he said.

Following their forced repatriation, the Mendez family re-settled in Michoacan. Gil eventually went to live with his uncle in Monterey, where he continued his formal education until Mexico declared war on Germany in May 1942. Until then, Gil had never given much thought to Pearl Harbor. He saw it as a tragedy, to be sure, but it was an American problem. By this point, he had been living in Mexico for more than ten years, speaking mostly Spanish, and he thought that this new conflict would run its course without Mexico’s involvement. “Mexico was very sympathetic toward the Germans at first,” said Gil, “and prior to the war they did a lot of business with Germany.” But when the Kriegsmarine started targeting Mexican ships on the high seas, the Mexican government promptly declared war on the Axis Powers. “When the Mexican President declared the war,” Gil continued, “they instituted conscription, or the draft.”

Gil was a few months shy of his 18th birthday, the minimum age for duty in the Mexican Armed Forces. “They called it the ‘1924 Class,’ which was the year that I was born.

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