Oral and taped interviews with the Latinos from Bee County who wanted to participate were conducted under the direction of the Bee County Historical Society and the staff from the University of Texas.
Community volunteers assisted in conducting the interviews.
The interviews were done in January and March. Thirteen veterans were interviewed.
The University of Texas project donated a DVD to each veteran and to the Bee County Historical Society.
The society is donating a copy of all these interviews to the Joe Barnhart Public Library so they can become available to all the public.
More information is available at www.lib.utexas.edu/ww2latinos.
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this most worthy endeavor! Prayers and love to the brave veterans and their families!
I lost a father-in-law several years ago(he was a Navy medic who bravely saved lives in the worst battles of the south Pacific). This kind soul treated me much better than my own father did. Mr.D.(privacy reasons)was a smart, hard-working, Christian, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and overall loving person who helped preserve our way of life.
Mr D. never spoke of his experiences until the zenith of his life( he did not want to subject any of us innocent civillians to the living hell that God needed him to endure.)
Given what Mr. D. shared, I feel that it is my moral responsibility to visit the library and listen to what our few, brave, surviving champions had to say. I will do with an open mind and a strong stomach,because if what our local vets endured is anything close to what Mr. D. did, it will be a chilling, sobering experience that I will pass on to our family.
Mission Accomplished and Job Well-Done, local vets! Thanks for your sacrifices that resulted in our continued freedoms! You vets rock!"Long May You Run...."