Transcript Oral History

Oral History
Sergeant
Mr. Salomon Oviedo
World War II
By: Jose Luis Jimenez, and
Jorge Pina
Table of Contents
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Introduction
Biography
Pictures w/ explanations
Interview
What you learned
What do you think
Closing statements
Credits
Introduction
On December 12, 2007, I Jose Luis Jimenez
along with my partner, Jorge Pina,
interviewed Mr. Salomon Oviedo for the
first time. The interview took place at my
home at 1601 David, Laredo, TX. This
interview is being conducted by Team 7C,
Ms. Lozano’s block at L.J. Christen Middle
School and is part of the Our AmericaTeaching American History, coordinated
with Texas A&M International University.
Biography
• Mr. Salomon Oviedo was born on
December 19,1914 at Laredo, Texas. He
attended Laredo schools and graduated
from Martin High School. He presently
lives at 1416 Garcia Street. He is a
Hispanic person who joined the Army and
served at World War II. He fought at the
war and was later promoted to Sergeant.
After being discharged, he came back to
Laredo, Texas and opened up a barber
shop at which he is still working at present
time.
Pictures w/ explanation
Interview
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jose Luis Jimenez: Mr. Salomon Oviedo, we are very pleased and honored
to meet you. My name is Jose Luis Jimenez and this is my partner Jorge
Pina, no George Pina. We are part of team 7C 7th block from Ms. Lozano’s
class at L.J. Christen Middle school. This interview is part of our American
teaching; American History coordinated with Texas A&M International
University.
We understand sir that you are a veteran of World War II. Is this correct?
Mr. Salomon Oviedo: Right.
J. Jimenez: Could you give us your complete name and your hometown?
Mr. Oviedo: Salomon Oviedo, my hometown is Laredo, TX.
J. Jimenez: Were you military of civilian?
Mr. Oviedo: I was civilian before I went to the Army.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Jorge Pina: Did you get any training?
Mr. Oviedo: I did get training in Jim Waters, TX.
J. Jimenez: Were you drafted or did you enlist voluntarily?
Mr. Oviedo: I was drafted.
J. Pina: when you learned about war, how did you and your family feel on
that?
Mr. Oviedo: Well, very sad at first, but we got used to that after the war
broke up.
J. Jimenez: What was your unit or position?
Mr. Oviedo: I was infantry man, my grade was first class private. First
Class Salomon Oviedo at the beginning of the service. Later on I got
promoted to Sergeant.
J. Jimenez: What sort of equipment and weapons did the enemy units you
encountered use?
Mr. Oviedo: 25 caliber rifle; I don’t know about the rest of the weapons they
used. They used high grade weapons but I don’t know; just the 25 rifle,
that’s all.
J. Pina: Which enemy weapons were considered the most lethal?
Mr. Oviedo: I can’t remember too much about that. It was close to our
weapons, about 37 millimeter shells, bombs, canyons. (Spanish) No me
puedo acordar muy bien pero lo que el enemigo usaba en contra de
nosotros no sabia exactamente.
J. Jimenez: Were you ever shot during the war?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
J. Jimenez: How about your friends?
Mr. Oviedo: I lost two of my friends.
J. Jimenez: can you explain what caused the war and how it went?
Mr. Oviedo: Well, they just declared the war when they attacked Pearl
Harbor, you know. That’s why when we thought that we had to go in action,
we had to fight back. That’s when we got in a fight with the Japanese
people because we were attacked in Pearl Harbor.
J. Pina: How did you feel about all the casualties of the war?
Mr. Oviedo: I felt very sad about what happened at the time because that
was the nature of all our people, you know. We were very sad but we had
to go in action at the time.
J. Jimenez: Our history books tell us about two conflicts. Which one were
you in?
Mr. Oviedo: In the Japanese conflict.
J. Pina: What do you remember most about combat?
Mr. Oviedo: Well I was very sad when I lost my first companions during
World War II, you know, but you couldn’t be happy, you know. That’s what
you were there for, to fight for our freedom. That’s why we were there.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
J. Jimenez: Describe your daily routine while, no , during combat.
Mr. Oviedo: Well, part of our job was to keep on guard most of the time and
then came back to rest. Then we go back again to fight.
J Pina: What did you do for recreation?
Mr. Oviedo: Well, sometimes we had time to recreate. Sometimes we
didn’t have time to, for recreation. We just had to keep going.
J. Jimenez: What about living?
Mr. Oviedo: Well living it was like, sometimes we had to ..we had pretty
good living. Besides all the danger we were on all the time, you know, but
we lived pretty good.
J. Jimenez: Were you living in tents, or tunnels, or…
Mr. Oviedo: We had tents sometime. We had living quarters, you know,
barracks or something, you know, houses where we lived. During the
combat time, we had to live in the open. Sometimes we had to dig trenches
to sleep on. Trenches means dug outs, you know, where you defend
yourself in case bombings occur, you know.
J. Pina: Do you remember any discrimination?
Mr. Oviedo: I couldn’t hear.
J. Pina: No, no. No discrimination.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
J. Jimenez: Was there any drugs or alcohol used in your unit?
Mr. Oviedo: Sometimes, sometimes.
J. Jimenez: What was the most popular drug?
Mr. Oviedo: Beer, that’s all.
J. Pina: Name the song or music that you remember on that time.
Mr. Oviedo: some old music, you know, used to remind me once abut the
time we were off duty.
J. Jimenez: Did you correspond with friends and relatives back in the U.S.?
Mr. Oviedo: Sometimes I had time. Sometimes I didn’t have time.
J. Jimenez: How did you mail the letters?
Mr. Oviedo: Well we just mailed the letters, you know. Sometimes it took a
long time to get, to reach home.
J. Jimenez: Did you get any letters back?
Mr. Oviedo: sometimes we get , sometimes we don’t get any letters back.
J. Jimenez; did your relatives send you items like goodies or…?
Mr. Oviedo: No, they didn’t send anything.
J. Pina: do you recall any incidents involving poisonous insects?
Mr. Oviedo: Yeah, mosquitoes. Mosquitoes and I was repellant to that, you
know. They didn’t bother me much. There was quite a few insects that
bothered the people. They used to bite the arms and legs and all, but that
was all.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
J. Pina: Did you have any doctors on that time?
Mr. Oviedo: Yes, we had doctors and all that.
J. Pina: What awards, citations, or commendations did you receive for
service in the war?
Mr. Oviedo: Just good behavior, that’s all. I remember that, good conduct
medal, that’s all. I remember that.
J. Pina: how did the war change your life?
Mr. Oviedo: well uh…the war changed my life because I stay almost until
the end of the war. The war was declared December 7th and it lasted until
25 around August or November. I don’t remember exactly but just around
that time the war was over.
J. Jimenez: Did you suffer any disabilities because of the war?
Mr. Oviedo: Well, I had ulcers for a little while, but I got cured. I went to the
hospital and they cured my ulcers. That’s the only thing I suffered.
J. Jimenez: Do you think the U.S. government takes care of its veterans
today?
Mr. Oviedo: Well, the government has helped all the veterans in a very nice
way so we don’t have nothing to say about that, you know. When we need
medication we go to the government hospital and we apply for that. We get
attention for that.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
J. Pina: Would you like to go back to war?
Mr. Oviedo: Well, for our country if it’s necessary we, we need to be there.
J. Jimenez: Is there anything else abut which you would like to comment?
Mr. Oviedo: Well uh, the reason we went to war is because that was our
part to defend our country, so we live, and other people live their lives, you
know, besides being hostages for somebody else, you know.
J. Pina: Have you ever seen or heard someone say “no” when they were
going to war, when they were drafted to war?
Mr. Oviedo: No sir. We were called to action and we were called to serve
our country and we did what we did, you know. We had to go serve our
country.
J. Jimenez; did you keep contact with other soldiers of your unit?
Mr. Oviedo: Yes, we did all the time, all the time. We got to know, we got
together, we had conversations about what we were doing and how we
were doing, you know. That was the nicest thing that happened, you know.
We’re all just like a big family, you know. We fight and fight until the war
was over.
•
•
•
•
•
•
J. Pina: How did your family receive you when you came back from war?
Mr. Oviedo: They were happy. They were very happy to see me again.
They thought I was lost wherever, you know, but they were very happy
when I got home.
J. Jimenez; Is there any other members of your family that went to war?
Mr. Oviedo: No. We are four brothers and I was the only one called,
drafted to serve the country.
J. Jimenez; Thank you, Mr. Oviedo for taking time for this interview. On
behalf of myself, Jose Luis Jimenez, George Pina, and our families we
thank you for the service you provided for our country.
Mr. Oviedo: Thanks. I was very glad to give you the information about the
service.
What you learned
• With these very interesting project we learned about the importance
of fighting for our country to defend our freedom, as well as our
people and our rights as individuals.
• We learned to appreciate and respect all those Veterans who have
already defended our country. By talking to Mr. Salomon Oviedo,
we learned how a war is fought, how people lived out there, how
they communicated, and just like any other human being, how
scared they were of losing their lives.
What do you think?
• We think that all veterans have been very
courageous. They have done a good job
and deserve to be remenmbered and
honored.
Closing Statement
• This project has been a long one and a
very time consuming. Nevertheless, we
did learn a lot from this project.
• As for us, Jose Luis Jimenez and Jorge
Pina, all of this scared us a little, but we
think it also prepared us for a future similar
conflict.
Credits
• Mr. Salomon Oviedo
• Internet