HomeMy WebLinkAboutLawrence K. DeZavala, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Youngkin
Special to The Eagle
Anyone who has driven by the De Zavala vineyards
on U.S. 79 near the Easterly Community in Robertson
County can see the roots that Lawrence K. DeZavala has
put down. However, his family had deep roots in Texas
soil for a long time, even before Texas was Texas.
"My great-great grandfather Lorenzo De Zavala, as
a delegate to Washington-on-the-Brazos, helped write
the Texas Constitution and was the first vice president
of the Republic of Texas. My grandfather homesteaded
the property where the San Jacinto Monument is now
located. But I've only been in Robertson County since
1974, when my wife and I bought the property we now
own. We started our vineyard in 1979."
The De Zavala family served Texas in its struggle
for independence and Lawrence De Zavala served his
country during World War II.
"I was born in 1925 in Louisiana, but my parents
moved back to the Houston area in 1926 and I grew up
there. I graduated from Freeport High in 1942 after my
Dad took a job with Dow Chemical in 1940. At that time,
the war was on and I knew I would be in the military
soon. The infantry didn't appeal to me, so just before
turning 18, I volunteered for the Army Air Corps and was
accepted.
"I did my basic training at Sheppard Field in Wichita
Falls and joined the cadet program because I wanted
to be a navigator. I failed my physical and was dropped,
from the program. My physical condition was sufficient
to be an enlisted man but not an officer. It's still a puzzle
to me.
"I was sent to radio school in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, in the dead of winter. I learned Morse Code and
learned how to repair my radio equipment. I was then
sent to Yuma, Arizona, in the middle of the summer for
gunnery school. The weather was at the extreme at
both places.
"Part of our schooling in Yuma was aircraft
identification. That was thrown at us pretty fast, but we
began to be able to recognize most aircraft from most
angles. But the bes# advice we received was from some
of our old-hand instructors. They told us that if a fighter
plane pointed its nose at us and got too close, shoot~it
down. I always thought that was pretty good advice.
Naples. We were assigned to the 376th Bomb Group
and were part of the 513th Bomb Squadron operating
out of Pancrazio, Italy. Our base was located in the
middle of a vineyard.
"Before the war was over for our crew, we flew
21 missions. I guess I and my crew were real lucky,
because none of us ever received a scratch. However,
(here were plenty of occasions when we had shrapnel
passing through all sides of the plane.
"On more than one occasion, during heavy anti-
aircraft fire, I would sit on our extra radio and would
take the extra flak jacket and try to keep it above and
over my face. That was about all you could do, except
pray. And pray we did.
"We had the worst loss of planes and men on a
mission over Northern Italy. When we flew on a mission
and got over the target, we would fly as close together
as we could. We would take our lead from the lead
plane on dropping our bombs. The concept was that if
all of our bombs were dropped from a tight formation,
the damage inflicted would be greater. That day they
really had us zeroed in and we were all being hit
by flak. Suddenly, one of our B-24s in the middle of
the formation was hit and exploded in mid-air. That
explosion took out four planes -the one ahead, the one
behind and the ones to each side. After they went down, .
we reformed and continued on to target. There were a
lot of prayers said that day.
"One of my lighter memories was about our beer
allotment. Once a month we received asix-pack as our
allotment of beer, and I remember them locking up our
C02 extinguishers because the guys would use them to
cool down the beer."
The war in Europe ended in May 1945 and De Zavala
returned home to prepare to go to the Pacific. While
home on leave he married his wife Rachel on June 16,
1945. By October 1945, he received his discharge and
enrolled at the University of Texas at EI Paso, graduating
in 1949. he worked for Dow Chemical from 1950 until
his retirement in 1983. He was a founding member of
the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association, formed
in 1975, and has been active in the industry since.
"Looking back, we had a great crew. We had a
reunion 15 years ago, and of the eight still left, seven of
us had college degrees. And one of the crew members
"We formed up our crews in Tulare, California, and I hosting us was the co-pilot, K.A. Jones, who started and
became part of a 10-man crew for a B-24 bomber as owns Jones Construction, a nationwide construction
the radioman and waist gunner. We had a great crew firm. Thinking about my experience, I wouldn't take a
and we ended up being the top crew in our class. That penny to do it again, but I wouldn't take a million dollars
gave us a lot of confidence in each other. for that experience."
"We were sent to Hamilton Field, San Francisco, to For more information, to make a contribution, or if
fly to the Pacific. Instead, two days later, we were on you know a World War l/Veteran whose story needs to
a troop train for eight days headed for Newport News, be fold, contact the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial at
Virginia. We boarded the SS West Point along with the www.veteransmemorial.org or Bill Youngkin at (979)
10th Mountain Division and sailed to Italy, landirig in 260-7030.