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"No Guts, No Glory! "
Antonio Uribe QM3 (SS) USNavy WWII
Erasmo, Was lucky to get aboard the USS Los Angeles in Long Beach. They re bigger than our Diesel Boats but just as crowdwd. Radio shack is more modern but just as crowded. Other departments are just the same as they were before... crowded. Combat pin was given to us on first successful patrol and silver stars were awarded for other successful patrols. Gold replaced silver star when you had made 10 successful patrols.. There was NO initiation, just Captain called us to recieve them. Last two patrols I made on Pilotfish were for life guard duty. We followed many a plane which had their honing device on but lost them to other areas or they made it home safely. Last 2 patrols were not considered uccessful for we picked NO pilots or sank anything but on one of them we sank 3 floating mines at sea with gunfire... each at different times. To show you how powerful mines were, when they exploded about 150 to 200 yaqrds away, pieces of molten steel reached the boat. Luckily no one was hit. Saw pictures you sent me and recognized you in several of them. You have good idea of how we lived but feel it was a bit more hectic during war time. Remember once losing an engine and there was a crew working around the clock to put it back in commission while engine men would shift from 4 on and 8 off to 6 on and 6 off. That was way we operated. No rest for the wiecked.. Abrazos Antonio Uribe QM3 (SS) WWII -- President John F. Kennedy 1963, Annapolis, MD "Ask Any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile ... can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction, 'I served in the United States Navy" Pres. J.F. Kennedy Picture of Oscar Martinez.. Another bubblehead... Served on USS Atule during WW II and on USS Cochino during cold war. He did not graduate for he stayed in the Navy after WW II but he went to Martin High till about 1942. He was a year or two older than me and we met at Martin... Picture and story for Normas heroes... Tony Uribe Erasmo... Not sure if you have read Oscar Martinez account of the
sinking of the "USS Cochino..." This is an account of what
went on and what a few men tried to do to return boat to port:
"It was an adventure!" Chuck
Owen, of Laredo since 1990, joined the Navy in 1959 from his home in
Dickson, Tennessee. Chuck became a Navy air traffic controller (ATC) .
Retiring in 1980 as a Navy Lieutenant. chuck, is a minister/pastor with
his own church in Laredo TX. He writes a religious column in the LMT on
Saturdays.
email from: Leonard Anderson Drop me down from the ferocious pecking order and put me next to Beto Martinez. Elevate Bill Simpson to above everyone else other than that good looking Wave from Dolores or was it Helotes, TX? Damn it, looks like I will have to take away all those bird feathers Normis is normally shown wearing in her fotos. I had a friend in Idaho Falls, IDaho that used to let me have a little cute parakeet that I carried on my shoulder. The wings were clipped and could not fly. They kids all looked at me and wanted to pet the damn thing and I would let them. Did it a couple of times but quit when the bird would shit on my shirt. And they would laugh at me. At least Normis kills her birds first and wears the plumas. Long live the age of "what was it called?"Commercial fowling? Bird Marketing? Also, tell her I said to stop providing orders. Also, that if she has one "to turn one in" and if she has one "to draw one. Everyone is in the damn pool. Tanks in line and dressed right, turrets at 1200, maximum pressure on hoses, water from the top down and all mud and dirt of the tracks. All Armor at picket fence operational status atat finish. Meal is will be a sack lunch to be provided, and no breaks until finished. Who in the hell is cleaning the shoulder and side-arms at the Brigade Armory?" Webmaster's NOTE: Coņo Chico, I ain't telling Normis nothing unless I start the letter with "Leonard Anderson said to tell you." E.Riojas  Emanuel Juan Riojas ATC U.S.Navy (Ret) also retired from NASA after 20 years
Carlos Valle's Nephew in Iraq. My nephew's name is Marshall Neidigh.
He is 26 years old.
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DOC....pls send me your snail mail address and I'll mail
you everything you ever wanted to know or see about moi, como dice Normis......LOL......I
prepared it for my obit.......LOL.......plenty of military pics
there.......you're not gonna believe my US Army Band foto when I was drum major
in Germany.......I'll send it to you next time I go to the post office in the
next year or so........ng/la
Monday, Sept 19, 2006 The Photos finally arrived!
Dec
27,2006
veteran of Okinawa and many other operations in WWII, came home, got sick
and died of a surgery performed at Brooks Army Hospital in San Antonio. See
Pithaya 1948.
Riojas will get my photo in Military Uniform, I promise !
Veterans
Day
Two Laredo veterans share their stories
BY TRICIA CORTEZ, Times staff writer
Though a long isolated town on the
U.S.-Mexico border, Laredo has sent its share of brave men into the armed
services and front lines of war. For example, Seferino Lerma jumped
from a plane onto Normandy Beach on June 6, 1944. Often referred to as D-Day,
the invasion eventually led to Nazi defeat. Luis J. Landin, a
command sergeant major, volunteered for three tours of combat duty during the
Vietnam War. He is Laredo's most highly decorated war hero.
Nearly 8,800 veterans live in Laredo
and Webb County and are registered with the Texas Veterans Commission, according
to Webb County Veterans Service Officer Jesus "Chuy" Cantu. Many
of these soldiers have been awarded the Purple Heart and other decorations, but
they are referred to as unsung heroes because of the quiet life they lead.
One Vietnam veteran explained that
many do not get out to wave a flag, but they will cry every time they hear the
national anthem or "Taps." "They are not shirtsleeve
patriots. They are foxhole patriots. That is to say they got in the trenches and
defended our democracy with fixed
bayonets and real bullets, not rhetoric," he said. Lerma and Landin
are just two examples of these "foxhole patriots." Seferino Lerma
After graduating from Martin High
School in 1941, Lerma enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 17. He was
mainly interested in the $21 monthly paycheck since he was only making $4.50 a
week at a shop on Hidalgo St., Lerma laughed in an interview at his home off
Clark Boulevard.
Once he completed Basic Training in San Antonio, he and two Laredoans (the late Willy
Garza and Miguel Abrego) volunteered for the 82nd AirBorne Division.
Lerma was sent to England in
1943 for a year-and-a-half and remembers getting onto a plane every night for
training. "One night they told us, 'This is it. We're going to make a
jump at 2 a.m.' We couldn't believe it," Lerma said. "When I
looked out of the plane, it looked like all hell had broken loose. There were
bombs and gunfire that could be seen through the darkness," he said.
After landing on the edge of the water, they were pinned down for 21 days
without relief. "The Germans were pretty strong there, but the
American and British Air Force kept flying overhead non-stop," Lerma said.
Lerma, a machine gunner and
squad leader, said his group was at the tail end of the platoon. He carried a
.45 pistol and would also fire an M-1 rifle when the machine gun became too hot
to fire. "During those 21 days we were eating K-rations, some really
hard stuff, and were hardly sleeping," he said. Relief finally came
from the famous 36th Infantry Division, known as the
Texas division. Roughly 90 percent of these troops were Mexican-American.
"They had been fighting in Italy
and were sent to help us," Lerma said. The Germans counter-attacked
and pushed us back, but we soon pushed the Germans forward into a French town
called St. Lo, Lerma said. Gen. George Patton, his tanks and the likes of
Audie Murphy, a legendary Texas Medal of Honor recipient, soon arrived. On
July 15, Lerma was shot three times in his right leg and lay on a field all
night, unable to move. He was later found and taken to a
hospital in France. After being shipped to England, he was sent to military
hospitals in Temple, Texas, and San Antonio and Oakland, Calif. "They
put me back on active duty, but I could hardly stand on my leg," Lerma
said. He received an honorable discharge, a Purple Heart and an Oak Leaf
Cluster.
However, he lost his rank of Sgt.
First Class right after the war. "I ran around with a bunch of wild
guys. We would go to New Braunfels (Texas), but they wouldn't serve
Mexican-Americans. So, these guys broke some windows. They didn't put me in jail
because I was in a brace and had
a cane," he said. Lerma moved to Michigan where he started a family
and worked in factories
and the U.S. Post Office. He moved back to Laredo in 1985 and is now 79 years
old.
Luis J. Landin, a threat to
the Viet Cong, no doubt, combat infantryman Landin was dropped into the
Vietnamese jungle by helicopter over 100 times during the 1960s. He soon
rose to the rank of command sergeant major, the highest rank for all enlisted
Army soldiers. He volunteered for three tours of duty, which took him to
Vietnam in 1960-61, 1964-66, and 1968-69. During an interview at his home
off Jacaman Road, Landin nonchalantly took out a cardboard box and its
contents of medals, citations and a torn and bloody flag of the Viet Cong Army.
"When you're a solider, it's the
most noble profession in the world. You do it to defend your country and way of
life," Landin, now 72 years old, said. "If you're lucky
enough, you will come home alive," he said. After receiving his GED,
Landin joined the U.S. Army in 1948, where he
served for 27 years. He was sent to the Korean Conflict for one tour of
combat duty in late
1951.
By 1960, he was one of the first U.S.
advisors to Vietnamese Army Ranger units and worked in conjunction with American
Special Forces. Wounded numerous times, Landin's decorations
include two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with a "V" (for valor),
four Air Medals for combat
operations, two combat infantry badges, the Purple Heart, three Gallantry
Crosses from the Vietnamese Army for gallantry in action as an infantry
advisor and presidential unit citations.
"We would never run out of a good fight," he said. During his
first tour of duty, Landin was sent to teach the Vietnamese Army about weapons
and guerilla war tactics. He became familiar with the
Danang area and Mekong Delta. He returned to Vietnam in 1964 for 12 months
and extended it another 12 months.
This time, he was a light weapons
infantry advisor to the Vietnamese Army and received a Silver Star, which
General William Westmoreland pinned on him in Saigon. His citation
describes an ambush "by a large hard core Viet Cong force" at sunset.
During the counterattack, the assault faltered, and Landin reorganized the
troops and personally led the assault. He later brought "critically
wounded soldiers some 800 meters across the battle field, which was under sniper
fire, to a waiting medical evacuation aircraft," the citation reads.
Landin retired from the
military in 1973 and joined the city in 1980. He became the Bridge and Traffic
director and retired on March 17, 2000.
(Staff writer Tricia Cortez can be reached at 728-2568 or tricia @ lmtonline.com
11/11/02
Sent by Walter L Herbeck email:
epherbeck @ juno.com
Evan J. Quiros,a native Laredoan, a graduate of the Air force academy class of 1966.
He said, "hardest, most miserable four years of my life--minimum academic load per semester was 19 hours. We started with over 1000 and graduated 347. I was 345 in the class (I maintain that I was in the top third.) I went to the 30th reunion but missed this year's 40th. It was a tough four years, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. The Pitahaya annuals are still on the company web site (www.bordertitle.com ).
Erasmo, I have moved my stories and pictures of my stained glass windows to my personal site www.http://www.evanandmary.com/
The stories are in .wav and .MP3 format.
Pointing to a particular file and double clicking on the left mouse button should launch the narration--remember to listen to them in order--clicking on the right mouse button should get you a window asking what you want to do with the file--you can download it using the "save target as.." option and then load it into your MP3 player if you have one--or you can download all five .wav files and burn your own playable CD--if you're still having problems, find a teenager--they know everything.
ps: I have entered my second life. I have just bought a 1957 Ariel Square Four motorcycle!
Evan J Quiros
McPherson
Laredo , Texas 78043
email: ceo @ bordertitle.com
return to Page ONE
Mi Vida Loca - Copyright Š1998 - All Right Reserved Erasmo "
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Maria Cardenas Avey, Airman 1st Class
USNavy . Es tia de E. Riojas. Maria was
born in Dolores TX and is alive and a WII veteran. 
Bill Simpson LT US Navy, Naval
Academy Graduate
"GoNavy! Go Blue and Gold!"
Reynaldo Reynaldo "El Morro" Vargas (RIP)
was U.S.Army Airborne and made the combat jump in Korean war. 
Heberto J. Martinez USAF
Ramiro "Moe" Saucedo, St. Joseph's A.
graduate was 
