WORCESTER – They were forgotten soldiers from the forgotten war.By Maria Sacchetti
The Army’s 65th Infantry Regiment, almost exclusively from Puerto Rico, took part in some of the most brutal battles in Korea. General Douglas MacArthur called them “heroic,’’ but inside the Army the soldiers faced their own battles: Some officers questioned their patriotism, derided them with ethnic slurs, or worse, sent them into battle dangerously unprepared.In all, 743 soldiers from the 65th died and 2,318 were wounded in Korea – losses that were double the national average for the conflict.
Today…
Today, officials from the federal, state, and Puerto Rican governments will honor the 65th veterans at Worcester’s Korean War Memorial, in Massachusetts’ most public acknowledgement yet of their service. For Puerto Ricans, the biggest Latino group in the state, the ceremony is a chance not only to pay tribute to those who served but also to reflect on a larger population whose history in the United States is often ignored or misunderstood.
“We lost a lot of men,’’ the Rev. Jose Perez, a veteran of World War II and Korea, and now a silver-haired, 85-year old man, said in his living room in downtown Worcester this week. “People didn’t know about it. They didn’t think we mattered.’’
Perez, along with Luis Colon, Felipe Guzman, and Evangelista Morales Cruz – all of Massachusetts – will be honored at the ceremony. They are now in their 80s, their memories sometimes foggy. Some parts of the war are easier to recall than others.
But in interviews, Perez and Colon recalled a sense of pride and purpose in their service, and mostly had good relationships with the regiment’s leaders, who were white and Puerto Rican. The veterans said they spoke English, and Colon said he rarely faced discrimination, though other members did.
“I liked the Army,’’ said Colon, an 87-year-old father of five who spent 23 years in the Army before he retired to Worcester. “I learned to be a complete man.’’
The 65th traces its roots to a volunteer battalion created in Puerto Rico a year after Spain ceded the Caribbean island to the United States in 1898 in the Spanish-American War, though the unit was officially activated in 1920.
Puerto Ricans, US citizens since 1917, have served and died in significant numbers in many American wars – no precise numbers are available. But they do not pay federal taxes. They can’t vote in the general election for president, though they can vote in the presidential primaries.
Perez’s draft letter arrived in English around 1943, calling him to World War II.
At the time, Puerto Rico was five years away from democratically electing its first governor. Poverty engulfed the island, and many young people such as Perez never had the chance to finish high school. Born in the small town of Lares, he dropped out after seventh grade to sell appliances in San Juan.
Perez, a Pentecostal minister who moved to Massachusetts after the war, said he was eager to serve and glad for the work. Until the Army, he had never left the island.
“I felt, as an American citizen, I had to serve the nation,’’ Perez said.
The ship from balmy San Juan to training in New York ferried him to another world. He shivered in the frigid snow for the first time, bundled into wool pants and lined boots. Many New Yorkers treated them like “angels from heaven,’’ Perez said. But he was also repulsed by segregation at beer halls and on buses, where black people would stand while white people sat.
“We didn’t understand that separation,’’ he said. “We would ask them, ‘Ma’am, why are you standing?’ ’’
But the 65th also confronted discrimination in the Army. Some senior officers doubted their patriotism and combat fitness, because they were Spanish-speaking troops from a US possession, according to historical accounts from Colonel Gilberto Villahermosa, an Army historian, and the Army Historical Foundation. Most of the time, the regiment was relegated to security and backup, even in World War II.
“It seems like the 65th was always in the back,’’ Perez said.
That changed in Korea.
After impressing senior Army officials in major exercises in Puerto Rico, the soldiers were sent to Korea to fight.
They distinguished themselves quickly. The 65th helped protect the Marines during the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir and led a 1951 bayonet charge that captured key territory and was immortalized in a painting commissioned by the National Guard Heritage Foundation, said Villahermosa, whose father served in the 65th.
Four soldiers earned the Distinguished Service Cross, one of the highest military decorations, and 124 won Silver Stars for bravery.
“We were never afraid of death,’’ said Perez, straightening his back and raising his chin, a sign of the old soldier.
But by 1952, the 65th was in trouble. Many of its leaders, including Puerto Rican and white officers, were being transferred to fill shortages in other units, leaving them with insufficient numbers of trained Puerto Rican sergeants to lead troops in battle, Villahermosa said.
The 65th lost hundreds of soldiers at the key battles of Outpost Kelly and Jackson Heights, and some of them were later accused of disobeying orders or deserting. Within a year, 95 Puerto Ricans had faced courts-martial, but the secretary of the Army quickly overturned those decisions and attributed them to language barriers.
The Army integrated the regiment in 1953, in Korea, and the regiment fought and won its final battles.
When the regiment returned to Puerto Rico, it was deactivated in 1956 and three years later became part of the Puerto Rico National Guard, which exists today.
In recent years, the regiment has garnered more attention as the veterans aged. An award-winning documentary was released in 2007. In Boston, a monument to the 65th was erected in the South End.
Worcester decided to incorporate the 65th into the larger Korean War memorial after officials realized that many members of the regiment had moved to Massachusetts.
“I’m from Puerto Rico, and I didn’t even know anything about the 65th,’’ said one of the ceremony’s organizers, Gladys Rodriguez-Parker, an aide to US Representative James P. McGovern of Worcester. “I started digging and I found a whole community that was out there.’’
In all, 61,000 Puerto Ricans served in Korea, most with the 65th.
“They deserve their recognition,’’ said Frank Carroll, a Navy veteran of the Korean War and chairman of today’s event. “After all, they’re Americans. . . . They’re proud to serve.’’
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