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| Jose
Mendoza Lopez was born on July 10, 1910. The exact location of his birth is believed
by some to have been Veracruz, Mexico, but on official US documents it's listed
as Mission, Texas. Jose was being raised by his mother,
Candida Lopez, a seamstress in Veracruz Mexico. His father had drowned while working
at sea. His mother passed away as a result of tuberculosis when Jose was eight
years old. He then traveled to Brownsville, Texas to live with his uncle's family.
Once there, he began to work odd jobs to bring in needed money for the family.
He never returned to school. In time, the five-foot, five-inch
tall Jose decided to hop freight trains and travel to other cities to find work.
During the Depression Era many men had become unemployed and relied on freight
trains for transportation to prospective jobs. Jose was
in Atlanta, Georgia when a much larger man began to pick a fight with him. He
immediately responded by counterattacking the bigger man and administering a severe
beating! Among the witnesses who had stopped to watch the fight was a boxing promoter,
who saw a lot of potential in Jose as a lightweight. The promoter billed Jose
as the "Mendoza Kid" and started arranging boxing matches around the
world for him. Out of fifty-five fights, he lost only three. While
in Melbourne, Australia, he met a group of Merchant Marines and decided to become
one of them. He was finally accepted into the union in 1936 and spent five years
traveling the world. Five years later, Jose was sailing
from Hawaii to Brownsville, Texas when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
After returning to Brownsville in 1942, he married Emilia Herrera and they moved
to San Antonio. He received a draft notice that year and enlisted in the US Army.
He was sent to Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio, then to Camp Roberts, California
for basic training. Five weeks before his thirty-fourth
birthday, Jose Lopez found himself racing through a hail of machine gun fire and
artillery explosions as he departed a landing craft and sought a safe position
on the beach. This was D-Day, June 6, 1944. His unit finally landed, reorganized
and started an advance inland, facing the enemy's firmly entrenched opposition. Their
advance continued well into the winter months. In December of 1944, Company K
found itself in the midst of what would become known as the Battle of the Bulge! In
mid-December, Company K was bivouacked in a snow-covered field near Krinkelt,
Belgium. On the morning of December 17, 1944, the sound of diesel engines was
heard coming from the woods across the field. It was several German Tiger tanks,
accompanied by infantry! It appeared that Company K was about to be overrun. In
the midst of combat, it's possible that the most obscure memories can return.
Lopez remembered his mother once telling him, "Take care of your family and
they will take care of you." He looked around at his new family, his army
family, the men of Company K, and thought of his wife and child back home. It
was then that Lopez decided to do something for his family! As
the men of Company K attempted a defense against the enemy, Lopez grabbed his
machine gun, ran under murderous fire and set up on the left flank. From this
location, in a shallow depression in the ground, he began to pour rounds into
the larger enemy force. Ten enemy soldiers fell. The Tiger tank began to fire
at Lopez. An explosion knocked Lopez several yards from his machine gun. He was
dazed, but quickly recovered and staggered, under heavy fire, back to set up his
machine gun and continued firing. Twenty-five more enemy infantry men fell. As
the threat to Company K's left flank was diminished by his actions, the threat
to the center of their defensive line had become critical. Lopez picked up the
heavy 30 caliber Browning machine gun and under extremely heavy fire, made his
way to a position to the right of the line. Miraculously, he was untouched by
the enemy fire! Here again, he began to pour rounds into the enemy. As his company was retreating, he joined a small group that had set up a defense in an effort to cover the retreat. From this point, he continued to fire until he ran out of ammunition. His efforts had played a major part in buying time for Company K to retreat and provided some cover fire for the replacement troops that finally turned back the enemy. He and the small group joined Company K in the retreat. Lopez's actions that morning left over one-hundred enemy troops dead on the blood-soaked, snow-covered field. Fortunately for Company K, the enemy bypassed the town of Krinkelt. On June 18, 1945, Jose Lopez received the US highest award for gallantry in action, the Medal of Honor. Upon his return to the US, he was greeted by cheering crowds in New York City. Later, upon a visit to Mexico, Mexican President, Manuel Avila Camacho awarded him Mexico's highest military award for valor, la Condecoracion del Merito Militar. Lopez returned to San Antonio after his tour of duty in Europe. For several years in San Antonio, he worked as a contract representative for the Veterans Administration until the Korean War broke out. At this time, he was mistakenly ordered to report for duty again! He did not argue, he reported for duty. He was sent to Korea, but when President Truman learned of this, he ordered that he be removed to a non-combat role. Traditionally, after being awarded the Medal of Honor a serviceman was not expected to ever be in combat again. This time, Lopez remained in the army, retiring in 1973. He returned home to San Antonio. In February, 2004, his wife of sixty-two years, Emilia Herrera Lopez passed away. Fifteen months later, on May 16, 2005, ninety-four year-old Jose Lopez joined her. He was buried with full military honors at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
