Antonio C. Rodriquez was born in Martindale, Texas near San Marcos in December 1921. Rodriguez grew up on a farm where his father was a sharecropper. Rodriguez did all kinds of jobs on the farm dealing with animals and crops. Corn and cotton were the main crops. Harvesting time was busy months. He attended a small country school starting in 1927. He carried his own water because none was at school. He walked the two miles to the school. There was no indoor plumbing. He made the day at school and then went home to perform his chores. It was a hard but very good life. He learned a lot from animal and plant life. His family moved to San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas] before the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Rodriguez was working behind the soda fountain at a drug store on that Sunday, 7 December. He told his boss about the attack. His manager did not believe it but, after hearing the news on the radio, he went about telling his whole family. Rodriguez felt it was his duty to serve his country. He joined a civil service program and the reserves in order to enter military. He went to radio school for over a year. He went to a local school for six months, then Texas Tech [Annotator's Note: Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas] for three months and then finally finished after 12 weeks at Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] with Philco [Annotator's Note: Philco was a pioneering company in radio development]. After completion at Philco, Rodriguez was given 30 days leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and reported for duty in September 1943.

Antonio C. Rodriquez reported to Fort Sam [Annotator's Note: Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas in September 1943]. He was assigned to nearby Dodd Field [Annotator's Note: Dodd Army Airfield in San Antonio, Texas]. After a month, he was transferred to Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls [Annotator's Note: Wichita Falls, Texas]. He took basic training there and was given the option of being an airplane mechanic or a radio operator. He did better in radio [Annotator's Note: just prior to active duty, he had spent one year taking civilian radio training]. He was sent to Sioux Falls, South Dakota [Annotator's Note: Sioux Falls Army Air Base in Sioux Falls, South Dakota] for six months of further training. He was then sent to Yuma, Arizona [Annotator's Note: Army Air Forces Flexible Gunnery School at Yuma Army Airfield in Yuma, Arizona] for gunnery training on a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. After graduation, he went to March Field [Annotator's Note: now March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California] in California where he joined the rest of the crew. They trained on a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] for about three months. Afterward, they sailed to England in December 1944. Combat missions started after two weeks of training. An experienced pilot went with them on the first mission. The copilot rejoined the crew on the second mission. They flew with general purpose bombs and once with fragmentation bombs which were cinched together like a bundle of wood. Rodriguez had the responsibility to assure that the bomb bay doors were open prior to releasing the ordnance. Sometimes the doors were erratic and required several attempts before they were successfully deployed. It was a noisy operation. When the order for bombs away was given, Rodriguez saw a flash. There was a lot of damage to the aircraft and gasoline was leaking like water. Rodriguez was soaked. The flight engineer was in the top turret of the plane. Rodriguez pulled on his leg to get his attention and the engineer came down and stopped the fuel flow. The pilot did not have control of the airplane except for the throttles. He made a good landing but it required nearly the whole runway. One of the gunners was banged up badly and never flew again. He required an injection of morphine. He went to the hospital and returned to the United States. Rodriguez thought he received good training. He learned a lot from the prior service training in radio. He learned Morse code in his service training and was fast at it. He had good training. He had no instances of bias shown to him because of his Latino ancestry while in the service. Instead, he and his crewmates were like a family. They shared and took care of each other. They enjoyed leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] together. During his service, he maintained correspondence with his family back home. Using V-mail [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail], where the letters were reduced to a tiny image and transferred to the United States. The correspondence went home faster. It took a while to get mail and packages from home when he arrived in England. Rodriguez had traveled some before service so it was not too difficult for him being away from home. He and his crew mates were like brothers and stayed together. It was not bad.

Antonio C. Rodriquez flew towards the latter part of the war when few Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: the German Air Force] fighters were flying against the bombers. His main concern was due to the 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] which targeted them. Course and altitude variations were used to confuse the gunners below. On his first mission, he thought about his family and did not know if he would return home or not. The navigator would sit with Rodriguez and ask him what he was thinking about. The crewman was interested in what everyone was thinking about. There were ten men in a fully loaded plane. It was full of gasoline and bombs. At the start of the runway, the engines were given full throttle and the ship vibrated like a leaf. When the brakes were released, the plane lurched forward and raced down the strip. It was scary not knowing if the ship would lift off sufficiently to take flight. The missions involved a variety of targets such as airbases and marshaling yards but then it became the heart of the cities. Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] was the target once. It was the hardest mission because the crew was told that if they were shot down, do not expect to survive because the people below would kill them. Rodriguez was glad it was only one mission. It was an experience even though they flew over the clouds and had limited visibility of the city below. Missions were flown over occupied countries because of the route and not to drop bombs. They flew through France, Switzerland, Holland, and Belgium. They landed twice in France because of problems. One time was overnight. When flying a mission, there was a concern about being shot down or being injured during the flight. When the plane returned to the base, the ladies from the Red Cross [Annotator's Note: an international aid organization] were there to help the men settle down with conversation, sandwiches and a shot of whiskey. The main thing was to go home and take a shower and rest. The missions started at three in the morning with breakfast or a least coffee if the appetite was not there. Next, was a briefing on the line [Annotator's Note: flight line]. A priest would be available to give communion to the airmen. That was followed by a briefing of the crew on their objective and what to expect. Rodriguez and his plane was always deputy lead so they were in the front of the formation. When he saw the 262 [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter aircraft], it was only a streak that left a contrail that looked like smoke. Rodriguez and his crew mates flew the last mission not knowing it was their last. It was an easy flight. They were told they were going back to the United States but before leaving, they flew the ground crew over the destruction of Europe and to see the concentration camps. When the crew went home, they were told that they would have a 30 day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and then be reunited as a crew to fly a larger aircraft. The B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] was the largest plane available. After getting back together in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, they were ready to go to the Pacific but on 6 August [Annotator's Note: 6 August 1945] the first atomic bomb was dropped [Annotator's Note: on Hiroshima, Japan] and three days later [Annotator's Note: 9 August 1945], the second one was dropped [Annotator's Note: on Nagasaki, Japan]. That changed everything and finished the war. Rodriguez did not have to deploy, even though he was looking forward to flying the B-29. He was concerned with the long flights over water from Saipan in the Marianas to Japan. If the plane could not make the roundtrip, it would mean having to ditch in the water. He did not like that idea, but he did not have to go after all.

Antonio C. Rodriquez returned home after the war. It was wonderful to have experienced what he did on his tour of duty and then be able to safely talk about it. It was worth rejoicing over. It was his duty to volunteer and serve his country. He was lucky to come back well and not be injured. It was great. He considered staying in the military but changed his mind. As soon as his points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] allowed, he got out. He used the G.I. Bill to completed his high school education and then attended a junior college for two years. Funds ran out so he did not continue. Rodriguez feels it is important for young people to learn about World War 2 and the Greatest Generation. It was a war that was needed even though Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Museums are important to preserve the nation's history. He has visited, among others, the ones in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] and Washington [Annotator's Note: the National WWII Memorial is in Washington, D.C.]. Museums allow people to learn what went on during the war. Future generations must remember it is our duty to preserve our way of life in this country.