HomeMy WebLinkAbout Raul P. "Roy" Herrera, Brazos Valley Heroes~°~ ;
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'' Raul P. «Roy„
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__ Hererra
By Bill Youngkin
Special to The Eagle
Raul P."Roy"Hererra can claim some ofthe most diverse
training received during World War II. He was trained as a
paratrooper and a frogman but ended up not using any of
that training. His combat action was as an infantryman in
the Philippines.
Hererra was born Christmas Eve 1926 on a farm on Edge
Cut-off Road. He grew up working on the farms of Brazos
County and in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, where
his family moved while he was a young boy.
"I finished school in Harlingen and moved back. to
Mumford and was working at Duncan Dining Hall on the
A&M campus when the war started;' Hererra recalled. "I
wanted to join, but my parents had to sign for me because I
was 17. I entered active duty on February 2,1943, at Ft. Sam
Houston in San Antonio and the army sent me to Camp Hood
for basic training in the infantry.
"They were asking for volunteers for parachute training,
so t volunteered and was sent to Ft. Benning, Georgia. I had
four older brothers who were also in the army or army.air
corps. When my brother in the army air corps found out I
was in jump school, he sent me a letter telling me to get out
because that was the fastest way he knew to get killed as a
soldier. I had just completed the cable-jump training phase
of jump school, with the next phase to be jumping out of
-the planes. Before we were to jump out of the planes, the
instructor said'Now is the time to back out if you want to:
I was thinking about that letter from my brother, so I raised
my hand and said I wanted out.
"After that, the army sent me to Camp Horseshoe
outside of Paris, Texas, on the Oklahoma border for more
training. I didn't know what we were there for until they
said we were going for a swim. They had a pool dug that
was about 200 yards long. They asked for those who did not
know how to swim raise their arms. I didn't because I had
swum in the river before but never in a pool. They then asked
for those who could swim real good to raise their arm. I still
didn't because I had only swum in the river and didn't know
how different it would be.
ocean. One time we were dropped off in the ocean two at a
time and were told to stay afloat until they came back for us.
The guy with me began to worry that they weren't coming
back for us. I wasn't worried until he started talking about
sharks, then I began to worry also.
"I was sent to the Philippines, but not as a frogman.
When I arrived; I was assigned as a replacement in the
infantry. Our job was to follow behind our lines, to collect
the Japanese soldiers left behind. As replacements, most of
us had no combat experience, and I could hear some at night
crying because they were scared. I had been raised poor and
had to work hard all my life. I guess having gone through
those hard times really is why it didn't bother me as much.
"Most of the Japanese soldiers left behind were holed up
in caves. The ones who did surrender were starving to death.
When they wouldn't come out and surrender, we put the
flame throwers into the caves. Most of the Japanese would
.rather die than surrender, because not many surrendered:'
When the war ended, Hererra was sent to Japan as part
of the occupation forces. "I was a sergeant by then when we
were sent to set up camp outside Yokohama;' he said. "The
only building we had was a mess hall and one other small
building. It was a tent city, and we had over 15,000 troops
there with very little food and no other supplies. For about
a month we had. coffee in the morning and sauerkraut at
night and that was it.
"Afterabout a month, I took a detachment of 70 soldiers
into Yokohama. They couldn't believe how skinny and dirty
we all were. We got to shower, get new clothes and were
allowed to go through the mess hall line as many times as
we wanted. Some went through three times:'
Hererra came home from Japan in 1947. Of the five
Hererra brothers who served during World War II, two never
made it home. Natalie Hererra was killed in North Africa
and Braulio Hererra was killed in Italy. Hererra eventually
returned to Bryan, where he worked for the City of Bryan
for 22 years before retiring. He now works part time at the
landfill.
When asked what his service experience meant to him,
he responded, "When I went into the army I was only 17, but
I was a man already. But I will say that when you serve, it
"for those left, they told us to jump in and swim to the makes you feel different. It means a whole lot to you to have
end and back again. Some really couldn't swim, but I could. served your country:'
I was the first one down and the first one back. When Igot /f you want to have a name added to the Veterans
to the end and got out, they told me I was going to be sent Memorial, for more information, to make a coniribuiion, or
for frogman training. In frogman training we trained on if you know a World War 11 veteran whose story needs to be
demolitions of all kinds, like bridges, and we swam a lot. I told, contact the BVVM at www.veteransmemorialorg or Bill
was sent to Ft. Ord, California where we did training in the Youngkin at(979) 260-7030.