© American GI Forum, Omaha Chapter, 2008, All Rights Reserved

 

 

Trooper decorated in Korea

 

Twice, the U.S. military rejected his offer to serve.  Finally, Richard Arellano was called to be a paratrooper in the Korean War. He was injured in combat and awarded a Purple Heart and other citations before departing honorably in 1952.  That, really, was only the beginning of his service.

 

Today, the 81-year-old is head of the local Mexican American Veterans and active in the American GI Forum, Veterans of Foreign Wars, AmVets, American Legion and Military Order of the Purple Heart.  He performs with two Honor Guards, hosts veterans picnics and raises funds for fire victims and youths.

 

Community leader Virgil Armendariz Jr. calls Arellano part of a rare breed that acts on a deep sense of obligation to country and family. "He believes that for all of our faults and problems, we're worth fighting for. That is so reassuring."

 

Arellano and his wife of 52 years, Elidia, have three children.

 

His dad was pushed to the U.S. by the Mexican Revolution and met Arellano's mom in Wichita, Kan. The family of 10 kids moved from Colorado coal mines to various Nebraska sugar beet fields.  Arellano never knew why he was snubbed from World War II. In peacetime, he joined the Army but was cut when officials learned three brothers also were in the military.  After Korea, a California-bound Arellano stopped in Omaha to earn quick cash at a packinghouse. He met friends, his bride and stayed.

 

Among his fondest memories: the world's biggest stockyards.  "The economy was great," he said. "People were buying houses, cars. Everybody had money back then."

 

 

Navy vet saw action in Pacific

 

Joseph Juarez's father left Mexico in 1907 and landed in Kent, Iowa, a village beside the Burlington railroad tracks. The immigrant worked for the railroad. He saved enough money in two years to bring his wife and first two children to Iowa.  Joseph Juarez was born 15 years later. He grew up in Iowa. On a school field trip to Des Moines in 1938, he met radio broadcaster Ronald Reagan.

 

Like several siblings, Juarez followed his eldest sister to Omaha after she married a contractor who built rural Iowa bridges. 

 

Juarez served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946. In World War II, he served in the Pacific Theater on the cruiser USS Nashville. Juarez worked on the engineer force, one of 1,352 men on the ship. He survived a Dec. 13, 1944, kamikaze attack that killed 133 people and wounded 190.

 

After the war, Juarez worked 39 years for Swift and Co. He cut bones from hams, one of the most demanding but highest-paid jobs in the meatpacking plants.  "They paid an incentive," Juarez said. "The harder you worked, the more money you got."  The job supported Juarez, his wife, Mary, and their two children, Joseph Jr. and Debra. Now 84, Juarez still lives in the south Omaha house he built in 1959 with savings from Swift.

 

In 1958, Juarez became the first chairman of the American GI Forum in Omaha. He was the forum's national commander from 1970 to 1972. Through his leadership over the years, he met vice presidents and governors - including Reagan again, when he was governor of California.

 

 

WW II vet later joined Guard

 

Manuel Reyes bowls competitively. He dances, performs with a color guard unit, attends weekly Mass. On Sundays, he cooks up traditional posole soup that lures dozens of kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.  The occasions provide a platform for the family patriarch to pass on precious tidbits.  And at 87, the eldest of this year's parade grand marshals has a lot to share.

 

There's the story of his 1924 border passage. He was a boy then, and today recalls a bridge, a toll and otherwise easy access. "Once you came across, that was it."  His father, Francisco, had come to the U.S. about a year earlier and guided Reyes, a brother and their mom, Margarita, to his railroad job near Denver. Shortly afterward, they settled in Hershey, Neb.  In both towns, the family lived in converted railroad cars. "Some of the boxcars were real fancylike," Reyes said. Bathroom facilities, of course, were outside, he added.

 

The young Reyes learned English quickly but never lost his Spanish. His parents and their growing family moved eastward to North Platte, but another Nebraska town called Sutherland forever would be pivotal for there lived nine daughters (and four sons) of Mexican immigrants, one of whom would become Reyes' bride.

 

Like his dad, Reyes became a railroad hand, retiring from the Union Pacific. He served in World War II and joined the Nebraska National Guard, retiring in 1980.

 

He and the former Inez Orozco have been married 60 years and have five children.

Cinco de Mayo grand marshals not newcomers

By Christopher Burbach & Cindy Gonzalez

World-Herald Staff Writers