Five Texas Heroes from World War II

Approximately 750,000 Texans (12,000 of them female) served in the American armed forces during World War II. And of that number, 22,000 died—1.19% of all men between the ages of 19 and 44. None dare say that Texans failed to do their patriotic duty in prosecuting and bringing to an end this bloody conflict. I would like to honor five people from my home state who admirably took part. Not included are Dwight Eisenhower (a native of Denison who was Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe), Chester Nimitz (Fredericksburg; Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet), Claire Chennault (Commerce; organizer of the “Flying Tigers” who fought the Japanese on behalf of the Republic of China) or James Earl Rudder (Eden; commander of two battalions of Rangers who stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944).

Here, then, are the Fabulous Five:

Doris Miller of Waco. This sturdy (6’3″, 200 pounds) man of African descent had limited options in the segregated Navy. Miller’s rank on the U.S.S. West Virginia was “mess attendant third class,” which means he prepared and served food, and did laundry in his spare time. The West Virginia was resting in Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941 when Japanese airplanes appeared in the sky and started dropping torpedo bombs. Miller moved the injured captain to safety and helped load ammunition into a couple of unmanned anti-aircraft machine guns. Soon, however, he took control of one of the guns and started firing. The black press, particularly the Pittsburgh Courier, lapped it up. Miller was said to have had no knowledge about handling military weapons, although in fact he had attended gunnery school. In the story told stateside, he brought down two or three Japanese airplanes. Miller offered a more modest view, saying that he “may have hit one.” Even if he made no contact, Miller displayed considerable boldness in jumping up and engaging the enemy. Six months later, Nimitz was pinning a Navy Cross on Miller’s white uniform in a ceremony aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. He was killed in action on November 24, 1943 at the Battle of Makin.

Harlon Block, born in Yorktown although he called Weslaco home. He was a Marine specializing in parachute jumps. Block took part in the Battle of Iwo Jima, which lasted five weeks; about 7,000 Americans and 20,000 Japanese died in the fighting. When Mount Suribachi at the southwest corner of the island was secured, Block was part of a platoon tasked with raising the Stars and Stripes. They had to improvise, finding a steel pipe that would suffice as a flagpole. Then he, Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, Harold Schultz, Michael Strank and Franklin Sousley set it upright and secured it with boulders at the base. Their action was caught on film by Bill Genaust and in an iconic (and Pulitzer Prize-winning) photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press. Furthermore, it is depicted in the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. Before the fighting at Iwo Jima was over in late March 1945, Block, Strank and Sousley had been killed.

Audie Murphy, who grew up in three towns (Kingston, Greenville and Celeste) in Hunt County and Farmersville in neighboring Collin County. Although he is easily the most famous and most highly decorated of our five, Murphy had an impoverished background. His parents were sharecroppers, and he dropped out of school in fifth grade to pick cotton. He falsified his papers so he could join the war effort, starting as a buck private, winning several battlefield promotions and ending up as a lieutenant. Murphy, who fought in both the Mediterranean and European theaters, saw a lot of action for three solid years.  Although he was a small guy (5’5″ and 110 pounds), he was fearless with a gun and with his bare fists. He was, if I may use a crude term, a bad ass. But battles and wars are won with such men. The list of impressive things Murphy did in combat during World War II is long, but I will summarize one from January 1945. Returning from injury (he had several during the war), he was with his regiment in Alsace, France when they were subjected to a strong German attack. The situation seemed hopeless, so he ordered his men to retreat. Murphy climbed on a burning tank and shot his M1 carbine and the vehicle’s .50 caliber machine gun while directing artillery fire by radio. Aided by U.S. fighter-bombers, he killed or wounded 50 Nazis. After the war, Murphy embarked on a 20-year acting career in which he usually played himself or a variation thereof. Having seen so much violence, he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. Murphy was 46 when he died in a 1971 civilian airplane accident.

Sylvestre S. Herrera, brought to El Paso by an uncle as a young child from Camargo, Mexico after his parents died in an influenza epidemic. Herrera joined the Texas Army National Guard and got to Europe in late 1944. The Germans were in slow retreat from France, and Pfc. Herrera’s company was moving them along. But the Yanks encountered plenty of resistance. In March 1945, they were caught in a deadly crossfire between two sets of German machine-gunners. While most of the GIs dived for cover, Herrera went forward. He shot his rifle from the hip and tossed hand grenades into a machine-gun nest. His enemies stunned, he was able to corral eight of them. Turning his attention to the other group of machine-gunners, he stepped on a mine and lost both of his feet. Bleeding heavily, Herrera continued firing which enabled his mates to close in on the Nazis and blast them to smithereens. On August 23, 1945, he was sitting in a wheelchair on the White House lawn when President Harry Truman awarded him the Medal of Honor. After his death in 2007, Herrera was buried with full military honors.

Ted Bellmont of Austin and Houston. I admit, I include him because I knew him personally. The son of L. Theo Bellmont (the University of Texas’ first athletic director), he aided in the publication of my book “For Texas, I Will” / The History of Memorial Stadium in 1992. An Army officer in the 88^th Infantry Division in Italy, Bellmont took part in the Rome-Arno, North Appenines and Po Valley campaigns. He was wounded twice, earning one Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. Bellmont, who later had a successful career in the insurance business, died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2008.