Aug. 31 Veteran Profiles

Carl Field

Born: 1921

Dates of Service: 1943-1945

Hometown: Dora

Lives in: Dora

Theater or location of service: Mesa, Ariz.

Branch: Army

Rank: 2nd lieutenant

Unit and Specialty: Flight instructor

After discharge: San Angelo, Texas

Field served as a flight instructor throughout his enlistment in the Army.

Henry Gallegos

Date of birth: July 16,1926

Dates of service: October 1943 to August 1946

Hometown: Clovis

Lives in: Clovis

Theater or location of service: South Pacific

Branch: Army

Rank: Technical sergeant

Unit and Specialty: 77th Infantry Division 10th Army

After discharge: Clovis

A recipient of the Purple Heart, Gallegos was trained in “jungle warfare” from enlistment in preparation for combat in Japan. He said the Japanese were like “savages” when it came to warfare, saying a full invasion and ground war in Japan would have come at a high price and with great loss of American life. While among forces attempting to take a hill from Japanese forces in Okinawa on May 16, 1945, Gallegos was hit by small arms fire in his right side “they (Japanese soldiers) were standing on top of the hill and they were shooting us like fish in a barrel,” he said. Doctors told him had the bullet struck an inch more to the left, he would have quite likely lost his leg. He was carried by tank off the battle field to an Okinawan field hospital and later flown to Hawaii for treatment. Gallegos said relief swept through the soldiers at the hospital when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because those of them who were expected to make a full recovery knew they were being prepped to go back into combat for an invasion of Japan.

Lynn Wright

Born: 1925

Dates of Service: 1944-1946

Hometown: Tucumcari

Lives in: Clovis

Theater or location of service: Guam

Branch: Navy

Rank: RM 3rd class

Unit and specialty: Guam NOB Communications Office

After discharge: Tucumcari

Wright remembers a great excitement among his group, saying “when the bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki we knew it was the end of the war and we would be going home.”