Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutJose Pernia, Brazos Valley Heroey One in a series of tributes to members of "The Greatest Generation" By Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle Jose Pemia of College Station is a veteran of WWII but it was not until 1996 that he became a U.S. citizen. His story began in his native country of Venezuela on July 25, 1923 in La Victoria. According to Pernia: "My father had a coffee plantation and my mother was a teacher. After I graduated from my local school and I visited my aunt in America who had married an American and lived in Rosenberg, Texas. When I arrived in Rosenberg, the war was on and across the road from my aunt's home was a POW camp for German and Italian POWs from the North Africa campaign. "I enrolled at Rosenberg High for one year to improve my English I then enrolled at Texas A &M in 1943. It wasn't long before I felt the need to serve like so many others from A &M. I enlisted in the Navy in Bryan and was placed on the train from there to San Diego, California. "I graduated from boot camp in 1944. One thing that was memorable about my time in boot camp was that the actor, Gene Kelly, was in my boot camp. He was a really friendly and a nice guy and he was treated like the rest of us except on the weekends. When we received a weekend pass, we would line up to catch the bus into town. Gene Kelly would always have beautiful women in a big fancy car waiting for him to go on liberty. "My first duty was aboard the USS Heron AVP -2 which was a seaplane tender. We took care of the Catalina PRY planes that were used to service the fleet. We were all over the South Pacific. My job was in the engine room where I was a fireman 1st class. "From time to time you would go on deck to get some fresh air. On one such trip for fresh air I almost bumped into Admiral 'Bull'Halsey who had boarded our ship. He asked me where I was from and was surprised when I told him Venezuela. He asked how the hell I ended up in the U.S. Navy. I told him, like most of the sailors on board, I volunteered. "While I was on the Heron, we were involved in support of the Battle of Leyte Gulf which was probably the greatest naval battle of all time. Early in the w;r, the Heron had been hit by the Japanese but survived. We all hoped it didn't happen again because we had so much gasoline aboard for the PBYs in the fleet. If we had ever been hit we would have been nothing more than a gasoline bomb. "One other thing that I will always remember is that our ship and our PBY planes were involved in the search forthe men of the USS Indianapolis. lt was one of our planes that first spotted those survivors and lead the other ships to their rescue from all those sharks that were in the water with them. Last year at a VFW function I got to meet Glen Morgan who was one of the survivors we rescued. "We were constantly at sea serving the fleet with our PBYs. I remember the trip to New Guinea where we took pictures of the local ladies who had a bone in their nose and nothing on the top. Our captain said that with as much interest as we showed those women, it was apparently time to sail to Australia. 'We were in the Philippines when the war ended and we were there when the Philippines were granted their independence. After the war, I returned to the U.S. and prepared to return to college. When I attempted to enroll at Oklahoma State, one of the clerks said I wasn't eligible for the GI bill because I wasn't a citizen. That's when another clerk came over, looked at my records and said: 'He is as qualified as any other man thatfought for our country.' "I graduated from OSU with a degree in geology and began to work at Sinclair. I returned to Venezuela with Sinclair, working mostly in South America but also spending a lot of time in America. "When I retired from Sinclair, I served seven years as the Venezuelan Ambassador to Algeria and Guatemala. All of my six children are U.S. citizens and live in America. I moved back to Texas in 19%, and applied for and received my citizenship. There are some people who don't realize that this country although not perfect because only God is perfect, but it is still the best country in the world. I am very proud to be an American and I am very proud to have served my country. If you want to have a name added to the Veterans Memorial, for more information, to make a contribution, or if you know a World War 11 veteran whose story needs to be told contact the BWM at www.bvvm.org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 160 -7030. who served our country during World War II