{"id":1854,"date":"2012-11-09T23:15:03","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T23:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2012\/11\/09\/martin-navarro\/"},"modified":"2012-11-09T23:15:03","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T23:15:03","slug":"martin-navarro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/martin-navarro\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Navarro"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the Allied armada approached Normandy, Roman Catholic priests twice administered last rites to Martin Navarro. The second priest told him that he likely would not survive.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI proved him wrong, didn\u2019t I?\u201d a smiling 91-year-old Navarro recently told Hola America.<\/p>

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Navarro, then a 22-year-old Mexican-American from Moline, was one of hundreds of thousands of Allied troops assigned to participate in one of the largest amphibious invasions in history. On June 6, 1944 the Allied Army landed on the beaches of France, aiming to drive the Nazi armies out of France, and ultimately invade the German homeland. Navarro helped his country achieved all those goals.<\/p>\n

Navarro\u2019s unit, the 35th Signal and Construction Battalion, was ordered to be among the first to land on Omaha Beach, which proved to be the bloodiest battleground of the Normandy Invasion.<\/p>\n

As the huge armada of more than 4,000 Allied ships crossed the English Channel to the beaches of Normandy, Navarro said, \u201cI prayed a lot, and thought about my family back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Navarro was born May 4, 1922, to parents who had fled to the United States in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. His father, Geronimo, was from the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, and his mother, Maria Davila, grew up in the northern state of Coahuila.<\/p>

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Like many Mexican immigrants to the Quad Cities, his father worked on a section gang for the Rock Island Railroad. Martin had an older sister, Antonia, three younger brothers Joe and Hank and Angel, and a younger sister Virginia. They lived in the impoverished \u201cMexican area\u201d along the train tracks on the west side of Moline.<\/p>\n

In the depths of the Great Depression \u2013 when his father could find no other work \u2013 the entire Navarro family packed up and worked as migrant farm workers in the onion fields of north central Iowa near Belmont during the hottest days of summer. \u201cWe did whatever it took to survive,\u201d Navarro said.<\/p>

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After the Japanese attacked the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, the United States declared war on both Japan and Germany. The winds of history would soon change Navarro\u2019s life. At 20 years old, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. Soon after his induction on October 31, 1942, he married his long-time girlfriend, Julia Garnica.<\/p>\n

After basic training and taking the standard Army aptitude test, Marty was assigned to the 35th Signal Construction Battalion, which was formed at Camp Crowder, Missouri on February 15, 1943.<\/p>

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\u00a0\u201cThere were no other men there from Moline or Rock Island \u2026 and there weren\u2019t many other Mexican-Americans. There were a lot of southern boys at the base,\u2019 Navarro said. \u201cIt was pretty lonesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May 1943, just days after Navarro\u2019s 21st birthday, his unit began a circuitous deployment to the European theater of combat. The battalion went from Camp Crowder to Camp Ellis in west central Illinois, then on to Camp Patrick Henry near Hampton Roads, Virginia.<\/p>

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On Aug. 20, 1943, Navarro\u2019s battalion boarded the U.S.S. Argentina, originally a passenger liner that the U.S. military had converted to an Army transport ship. After enduring the long voyage in cramped, poor conditions, they landed on Sept. 3 at blacked-out Liverpool, England. Navarro and his unit then traveled south through green countryside in small trains known as goods-wagons. After about a week, the 35th was stationed at the historic town of Maidenhead, around 30 miles west of London.<\/p>\n

Members of Navarro\u2019s unit participated in secret training exercises off the coast of England, under the name of Exercise Tiger or Operation Tiger. On April 28, 1944, nine German E-Boats attacked the training exercises. Enemy torpedoes hit three transports, and one Allied transport was hit by friendly fire. Classified reports unsealed many years after the war ended said 946 American servicemen were killed.<\/p>\n

Navarro has kept a file for over 60 years with items about Operation Tiger, including issues of a newsletter dedicated to honoring the victims of the secret operation. \u201cI lost some friends,\u201d Navarro said. All survivors, including Navarro, were sworn to secrecy about Operation Tiger for fear news of the debacle would alert the Germans about the impending invasion.<\/p>\n

After the incident, Eisenhower even considered postponing the invasion based on fears of breached security and poor weather, but he decided to stay the course. June 6 was picked because there would be a full moon and a high tide, and barely tolerable weather.<\/p>\n

On June 1, Navarro and hundreds of thousands of Allied troops began boarding thousands of landing craft assigned to cross the channel from the Cornish coast of England. They waited for the final order to sail, given on June 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cA priest came by, looking for Catholics,\u201d Marty said. \u201cHe asked me how long it had been since I\u2019d been to confession. I kneeled down and he asked me if I had anything to confess. He prayed for me, got me ready in case I died. He said \u2018God bless you, son, and good luck.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The trip across the English Channel was horrid. The seas were high, and the flat-bottomed landing craft struggled in the high tides and winds. Most of the men were seasick. Fear, high waves, and vomit flooded the ships.<\/p>\n

At midnight on June 6, 1944, the first bombers took off from England to attack the fortifications at Normandy. At 3 a.m., gliders filled with troopers started crossing the English Channel. Bad weather limited the Allied bombing on the German fortifications on Omaha Beach, the destination of Navarro\u2019s unit.<\/p>\n

Another Roman Catholic priest aboard his landing craft began giving last rites as the Allied armada approached Normandy. \u201cI kneeled down again, and he prayed for me. He said \u2018there\u2019s a good chance you won\u2019t come back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MartinNavarro\"<\/p>\n

Very little went as planned at Omaha Beach. Navigation difficulties sent landing craft off course, and German artillery and airplane attacks inflicted heavy casualties. Engineers struggled to clear beach obstacles erected by the Germans. German airplanes constantly strafed the landing craft, and shelling from the Nazi artillery was non-stop.<\/p>\n

Navarro said he doesn\u2019t remember how long it took to finally reach the beach, but he remembers many men killed and wounded, and bodies in the water. \u201cThere were dive bombers all around us, and shells exploding, and dead men in the water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He declined to discuss the landing in detail, and his son, David, said Navarro has never told his children any details of the landing. The U.S. military reported that of 43,250 infantry men sent to Omaha Beach, some 3,000 G.I.s were killed, wounded or missing in action the first day of the battle.<\/p>\n

By day\u2019s end, the Americans had established two strongholds on the beach. Navarro says he does not remember for sure, but he likely worked at one of these strongholds, helping establish communications.<\/p>\n

In the next month, backed by hundreds of thousands of reinforcements, the Allies took control of Normandy and began the difficult task of driving the Nazi armies from France. Navarro said his battalion of signal corps men was split up among units throughout the Allied front.<\/p>\n

Instead of fences, farmers in Normandy used hedges to mark fields and control livestock. Allied soldiers had to battle their way through the hedgerows, never knowing when they would next face German soldiers and tanks.<\/p>\n

Navarro and other signal corps members were tasked with establishing and keeping communications open along the advancing Allied front. The cables they hung needed to be off the ground, so they erected poles, and they climbed on the top of farm houses, barns and churches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember I\u2019d be high up in the air running cable and I\u2019d look down and see the G.I.s crawling on the ground beneath me,\u201d Navarro said. They stayed low to avoid German fire, while Navarro and other signalmen climbed high.<\/p>\n

The Lone Sentry military publication said, \u201cIt was \u2026 the 35th Signal Construction Battalion that supplied most of the wire communications for the First Army across France, Belgium and into Germany. From D-Day to the end of June, 1945, First Army used more than 5,000 miles of a single type of field wire. Many miles of German military and French civil communications were rehabilitated and hundreds of miles of new cable were installed as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were like a fire department,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cWe wait and wait, then we\u2019d get orders that there was something that we had to do, and we\u2019d rush out and go wherever they sent us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Navarro said he faced little discrimination during the war, except for the time he was busted from corporal to private after an argument with a sergeant \u201cwho was a good old boy. We got into an argument over why some equipment wasn\u2019t available,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cI used some names I shouldn\u2019t have, and the sergeant used some names he shouldn\u2019t have. He reported me to an officer, who busted me. The officer never asked for my side of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

About three months after the 35th Signal Construction Battalion moved it\u2019s headquarters to Spa, Belgium, the Germans launched a surprise on Dec. 16, 1944. Two days later Navarro and his unit fled Spa just in front of advancing German forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the German breakthrough, (signal) construction battalions continually were pressed to re-establish communications,\u201d reported the Lone Sentry. \u201cMen suffered from the extreme cold and the pressure of fighting through snow and ice \u2026 the (Allied) armies never lost communications, and the eventual turning point of the Nazi drive was due, in part, to the excellent communications which enabled the command to keep in constant contact with the field units.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was cold, and the snow was deep, up to your hips,\u201d Navarro said.<\/p>\n

The Allied and German forces repeatedly advanced and retreated, and nearly every night the G.I.s slept in different buildings or fox holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time I jumped into a fox hole, and there was a man in a German uniform in it,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cI grabbed his pistol and wrestled it from him, but then I realized he was dead. I jumped up and ran until I found a chicken coop. I chased the chickens out, and slept the night there. I had bug bites that itched for a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Navarro still has the Lugar pistol.<\/p>\n

During the battle, Navarro and a small team were assigned to repair damaged wires. Once, when they finished, they took a wrong turn and ended up meeting an oncoming German convoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe raced as fast as we could and left the convoy behind, but when we got to the American checkpoint they wouldn\u2019t believe at first we were Americans. The Germans had all kinds of soldiers dressed in American uniforms and were sneaking behind our lines, so everyone was really jumpy,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cWe had to answer all kinds of questions about America before the guys at the checkpoint would believe we were Americans. We were lucky we weren\u2019t shot by the Germans \u2013 and the Americans!\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Germans were defeated at the Battle of the Bulge, Navarro\u2019s unit advanced into Germany. On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered, ending the war in Europe.<\/p>\n

Navarro and his unit boarded the U.S.S. Monticello at Le Havre, France, for a return trip to the United States. On June 26, Navarro and his fellow signalmen arrived at Pier 16 at Staten Island, New York. The ship was met by cheering crowds and a band playing One O\u2019Clock Jump.<\/p>\n

At home in Moline, Navarro and his wife had seven children, Monica, Gloria, Ramon, David, Daniel, Rico and Patricia. He worked for 35 years as a machinist for John Deere Co.<\/p>\n

Julia, his is wife of more than 65 years, died three years ago after a long battle with cancer. He still lives in his own home in East Moline, not far from the Ybarra Gomez VFW Post 8890, which he help found many years ago after the Silvis VFW post barred Mexicans from membership.<\/p>\n

After his wife died, Navarro made regular solitary walks to visit her grave at the St. Mary Cemetery, about a mile away.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loves to walk,\u201d said his son, David. \u201cBut he recently fell and bit through his lip. He\u2019s not walking much now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He turned 90 in May 2012, and he says his memory is fading, including the details of his World War II experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I do remember I never got shot, and I never shot anyone. I\u2019m glad of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a video of our exclusive interview with Mr. Navarro follow this link\u00a0 http:\/\/youtu.be\/W49xY2KmFlY<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Marc Wilson of Hampton, Illinois, is author of Hero Street U.S.A., which has been published\u00a0 by the University of Oklahoma Press in both English and Spanish. He is reachable at marcus@townnews.com.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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