While the Trump administration is actively trying to rewrite American history, this Memorial Day would be a good time to remember and honor the sacrifices of the tens of thousands of Hispanic Americans who have served in our country’s wars.
Sixty have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Here is the story of one of these brave Americans.
Alfredo “Freddy” Gonzalez grew up in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. In the summers, he helped his family pick cotton.
Freddy was small in size, weighing 135 pounds, but he earned all-district honors in football, according to his U.S. Navy Memorial biography. He played hard. He played to win.
After graduating from high school, Freddy enlisted in the Marine Corps. The Marines sent him to Vietnam, and there he proved to be an excellent squad leader. Once his tour of duty ended and he came back to the States, the Marines made him an instructor.
Interviews conducted with family, friends and fellow Marines for a historical video produced for the Medal of Honor Society, along with other biographical information and a book about his life, tell the rest of the story: He had been stateside only a few months when he heard the bad news. There had been an ambush in ‘Nam. Many of the men who had served under him were dead.
Freddy took it hard. He should have been there. They were his men. If he had been there, maybe they wouldn’t have been killed. What would a leader do? Would that person stay safe in the States while his fellow Marines were being killed? A leader would go back. He was going back.
Commanding a platoon
He was in ‘Nam again and became a sergeant, but many things had changed. For one, he soon found himself in charge of a platoon.
Normally, a 48-man Marine platoon was commanded by a lieutenant, but many of the officers had either been killed or wounded, forcing Freddy to take command. For another, the men in his platoon had arrived in ‘Nam only a few months before, according to the book “Marine Sergeant Freddy Gonzalez, Vietnam War Hero” by John W. Flores. He would have to train them, and before that, find some way to protect them.
Freddy’s good plans were literally blown to pieces when the Communists broke a ceasefire and invaded the old imperial city of Hue.
Freddy and his platoon were rushing down the road to protect Hue City when the cry was heard, the book says. “Ambush. Take cover.” A Marine riding on top of a tank was hit. He fell and lay bleeding in the road.
Immediately, Freddy left his position, ran to the man, picked him up, and carried him to safety, a Medal of Honor citation says. Freddy had been wounded. Looking over Freddy’s wounds, a medic wanted to evacuate him, but Freddy said no, the author, Flores, wrote in his book. He was not going to leave his men.
The last battle for Freddy and his men was in the abandoned St. Joan d’Arc Catholic Church and School in Hue. The fighting was brutal. Freddy’s platoon was being hit hard on all sides. Pinned down, his men were facing annihilation.
Then Freddy had a sudden idea. Why not blast the enemy with light anti-tank weapon rockets? Climbing the stairway of the church school, he ran through an open schoolroom door and fired all his rockets, according to Military.com.
This suppressed the enemy’s fire long enough to save his platoon from destruction. Then Freddy was hit by a sudden burst of return fire. He lay on the floor badly wounded. A Navy Corpsman arrived on scene and tried his best to save him, but the wound proved mortal. He died Feb. 4, 1968.
‘Above and beyond call of duty’
His citation says Marine Sgt. Alfredo Cantu Gonzalez was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as platoon commander, 3d Platoon, Company A. … during the initial phase of Operation Hue City.”
Usually, that would be the end of the story. Freddy would be forever remembered by his family, his friends and the town he grew up in, but then the U.S. Navy stepped in.
In the mid-1990s, Navy officials named one of their newest guided-missile destroyers the USS Gonzalez (DDG-66). At the launching, Dolia Gonzalez, the single mother who had worked so hard to raise her only son and who had done so well, was there to christen the ship and see it off in 1995.
So, Freddy is on duty again, doing what he has always done — on patrol, keeping his family, his friends, his town and all of the rest of us safe from harm.
Protecting America.
William Dodd Brown is a lifelong Chicagoan and Vietnam-era veteran who publishes WeAreAllAmericanPeople.com, a website that honors the achievements of Americans.