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Puerto Rican veterans of the 65th Infantry Regiment Borinqueneers

Alliance hopes to get Congressional Gold Medal for Puerto Rican veterans of the 65th Infantry Regiment Borinqueneers

(Gallery by Dave Roback, The Republican)
Elizabeth Roman, The Republican By Elizabeth Roman, The Republican
on April 22, 2013 at 8:43 AM, updated April 22, 2013 at 8:45 AM





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CHICOPEE – Arcadio Torres vividly remembers the minefields, the limited food rations and fellow soldiers who were killed.
It's been more than six decades.
Torres was a medic during the Korean War. He served from 1950 to 1952 as a sergeant with the U.S. Army's 65th Infantry Regiment, known as the Borinqueneers.
“We were all young men from Puerto Rico, and we had no choice about going to war. We were drafted," recalled Torres, now 87 and living at Willimansett Center, a nursing home.
Much like their fellow soldiers of color, Tuskegee Airmen and the Navajo Code Talkers the Borinqueneers were members of a segregated infantry regiment, established in 1899 with members serving in World War I and World War II as well as in Korea. The infantry regiment was disbanded in 1959.
Currently, the Borinqueneers is the only segregated military infantry unit to have not not been awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. The Borinqueneers Congressional Gold Medal Alliance is working to change that.
Established in December, the alliance is comprised of veterans, Puerto Rican college students and other volunteers who are determined to keep the history and recognition of the unit alive.
Frank Medina, of Orlando, Fla., is a 2002 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and grandson of a Borinqueneer. He took it upon himself to contact veteran’s service agencies across the country to locate living Borinqueneers in the effort to earn them recognition. There are about 300 left, living across the country and primarily in Puerto Rico.
Recognition efforts for the Borinqueneers date back to 1994 when Gumersindo Gomez, the director of the Western Massachusetts Bilingual Veteran's Outreach Association in Springfield, received an email from a librarian in Maryland, Ernest Acosta, who inquired about recognizing the 65th Infantry. Together, they worked the next six years to get the unit's veterans some recognition.
ARCADIO-OLD.JPG Arcadio Torres, of Holyoke, (far left, back row) stands with fellow members of the 65th Infantry Regiment, known as the Borinqueneers. Torres served in the Korean War between 1950 and 1952.
In September 2000, Gomez and six other area veterans joined 300 Puerto Rican veterans and their families at a commemoration ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery where a plaque honoring the regiment was unveiled and a tree planted in honor of the Borinqueneers.
The regiment was also honored in Puerto Rico where a seiba tree was planted at El Morro, a 16th-century Spanish fort in San Juan which was built to protect the harbor from invasion.
“It was very gratifying for them and for their families to be recognized,” Gomez said. “Now, we want them to be honored with the congressional medal, which they rightfully deserve.”
GOMEZ.JPG Gumersindo Gomez
Larry Bystran, founder and chairman of the Latino Alliance, has been working to publicize the group's work, creating a Facebook page and bringing awareness to the cause.
“The Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers, the Montford Point Marines, and the Nisei Soldiers have already received the congressional medal,” Bystran said. “We feel these men deserve recognition, and it is imperative that this happens soon since many of them are in their 80s and 90s.”
In order to secure the honor, the group must convince 67 members of the U.S. Senate and 290 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote in favor of legislation requesting the congressional medal be awarded the Borinqueneers.
BYSTRAN.JPG Larry Bystran
“It’s a tall order, but we are hoping that they see the importance of this recognition for the veterans and their families,” Bystran said.
Torres’ family members say he and his fellow soldiers were forgotten after the Korean War.
“He came home and tried to get work, but all he could find was construction work,” said Carmen Romero, his daughter-in-law. “They didn’t offer him any benefits until we fought for them, and, even then, it was $168 a month."
“We fought really hard out there. We suffered hunger and cold weather and when we got back people forgot about us,” Torres said, recalling his service in Korea.
A father of four, grandfather of six and great-grandfather of three, Torres is cared for well by his family, and, to this day, he shares memories of his time in Korea.
“He has always told us stories, even when we were kids,” said his youngest son, Hector Torres. “He would talk about how they were always running out of food and sometimes he would volunteer for missions when other soldiers would be too scared to go. I am very proud of my father and his service to this country.”
"It was not easy," Arcadio Torres said. "I remember one of my friend's right next to me on the battlefield. One minute he was there with me and the next he had been ripped apart by bullets. That happened all the time."
Torres remembers taking socks and other clothing from the bodies of dead soldiers because supplies were so limited. He also remembers waiting every morning for rations to be dropped into their area by air.
"We had one ration a day, and that was it. You had to make it last," he said. " We were fighting, and, at the same time, we were weak from hunger."
Although he already had two children back home Torres said he would often volunteer to go on missions for his fellow soldiers.
"Somebody had to go and sometimes some of the soldiers would be crying, talking about their families, so I would go in their place, and I would do it again if I had to," Torres said. "I'm not as strong as I used to be, but I would do it again."
The Borinqueneers trained in Vieques, then a small military training ground off the east coast of Puerto Rico. It meant that members of the unit went into the Korean War with no experience in a cold climate and the uniforms they had worn on the island. They also endured racism and discrimination from American military officers and were asked to take on dangerous missions which those in command believed there would be little chance of success, Gomez said.
"We mostly stayed together, all the the Puerto Rican soldiers. We were like a family," Torres recalled of being part of the segregated 65th.
The Borinqueneers are credited with the final battalion-sized bayonet assault in Army history. In early 1951 while fighting in Korea, two battalions of the 65th, armed with fixed bayonets, charged straight up a hill toward the enemy, overrunning them and overtaking the enemy’s strategic position. U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur had high praise for the unit.
It is unclear whether Torres participated in that particular assault; some of his memories are faded, but he does remember being in combat with bayonets.
"It wasn't like bullets. These were bayonets, knives, attached to our rifles, and we had to attack with them," he said. "With the bayonets, you have to fight very close to the enemy."
65thInfantryLarge.jpg This painting commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense depicts the bayonet battle fought by the Borinqueneers during the Korean War.
Of the nearly 5,000 men in the 65th Infantry who served in Korea, 750 were killed in action, and more than 100 are still missing in action.
“They were expendable,” Gomez said.
During Korea, members of the 65th earned 10 Distinguished Service Crosses, 256 Silver Stars, 606 Bronze Stars, and 2,771 Purple Hearts, some of the nation's highest and most distinguished military honors.
“I think it is important for them to get these recognitions because a lot of people have no idea how much Puerto Ricans have sacrificed for this country,” Gomez said. “They were not there defending Puerto Rico; they were there representing and defending the United States.”
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has agreed to co-sponsor the bill to request the congressional medal.
In the House, U.S. Rep. Pedro Pierluisi, D- Puerto Rico, the resident commissioner of Puerto Rico and a non-voting member of Congress, along with Rep. William Posey, R-Fla., are presenting the bill sometime in May.
For Torres, the medals don't mean much anymore, but they will be something his family can keep to honor him and his service.
“We are proud of him no matter what, but it would be nice for him to get some of the recognition he deserves for risking his life,” Romero said.

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