Sitting in front of a group of third graders at Metz Elementary, Alvino Mendoza told them about his experiences during World War II as though they were yesterday.
He said when he was drafted in 1944, he was given the option of picking which branch of the military he wanted to serve. Not expecting a choice, he remembered that, days earlier, the woman who would later become his wife had recommended he join the Navy.
"I had just turned 18, and within a week from when I registered, they called me," he remembered. "I thought it was going to be a
little longer."
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Remembering veterans
More than six decades since WWII, veteran Alvino Mendoza is still amazed at what America was able to accomplish during the war with thousands of men barely old enough to shave.
 
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Before entering into the military, the teenager had wondered what combat would be like and how he would react. Once aboard the USS St. George, Japanese planes dropped bombs on them, and he was already wanting to come home.
"I realized they were Japanese planes," Mendoza said. "But over the phones, nobody had identified them."
More than six decades later, Mendoza is still amazed what America was able to accomplish during World War II with thousands of men barely old enough to shave.
He said in some cases, these youngsters weren't even trained to handle the weapons assigned to them.
He remembered one such situation when a shipmate didn't fire as a kamikaze pilot bore down on their ship.
"All I could see is the propeller and the pilot, and I'm hollering at
these guys," he said. "We haven't shot at that one and we haven't shot at this that one yet, and I'm really screaming at them. As it turns and starts coming up sideways, a ship fired on them, and all of a sudden I'm looking at him and he turns around and goes crashing into the [other] ship."
A "condition red" situation was yet another moment the chaotic nature of war revealed itself. His crew and those on other ships around him were ordered to shoot at anything in the sky. Mendoza then saw an American fighter take off from a nearby aircraft carrier.
"[We] just blew it into tiny pieces," he recalled. "And then I see another one and I say, 'What in the hell is wrong with that captain? They're launching another one.' And we blew it out of the sky. I felt so sick, my stomach felt like it had a big hole in it."
Now, at the age of 82, Mendoza talks of the sacrifices of those who did not return. In the middle of the battle of Okinawa, his ship was put out of commission. While being repaired in Guam, he and his crew learned the war was over.
It gave him and others the chance to return home and give back to the community they were entrusted to protect.
You can find more about his experiences in World War II, at the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project's Web site, www.lib.utexas.edu/ww2latinos.
