When 20-year-old Frank Sanchez was drafted, trained and shipped in 1943 to southeast England to fight the Germans as a machine gunner for an anti-aircraft team, he had no idea that decades later, he would be recognized for his service as a “Veteran of the Year.”
Nominated by community members to be honored by California Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Salinas), Sanchez, now 90, received his award Monday just outside the Veterans Memorial Building in Gilroy. Among the robust crowd of attendees sat five generations of Sanchez’s family – Gilroyans through and through.
“I am kind of proud and humbled. Nervous too,” said the soft-spoken Sanchez, who first moved to Gilroy in 1937 and served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945. “I’m excited about the whole thing.”
In charge of the Honor Guard and Color Guard for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6309 and American Legion Post 217 in Gilroy for more than 25 years, Sanchez is also a lifetime member of both organizations.
“He’s always very accommodating and always willing to help,” said 76-year-old Ray Sanchez, Frank’s younger brother. “He’s the kind of guy who’s dependable and always going to show up when he’s given an assignment.”
One of Alejo’s representatives, Randi Davis, was on hand Monday to present Sanchez with the award.
Standing outside the Gilroy Veterans Memorial building at 74 West Sixth St., Sanchez was cheered on by roughly 70 or so attendees as he stepped in front of the microphone to say a simple “thank you” before returning to his seat.
For Ray Sanchez, watching his older brother receive a plaque for his service was more of a “heart-wrenching experience” because it was long-deserved.
“It’s something that needs to be celebrated every day,” he said. “We need to remind everyone in the community what a sacrifice our veterans made to keep the peace.”
Sanchez was one of four men and women from Santa Clara, San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties honored for exemplary military service and dedication to serving his/her respective community.
“Our veterans risk their lives to protect American values and our freedoms,” Alejo said in a press release. “My father served during the Vietnam War (and) it is a privilege to be able to honor and pay tribute to him and our veterans for their service to our great country.”
During Monday’s ceremony, Mayor Don Gage reminded attendees of those sacrifices, solemnly reading from a list of Gilroy’s 79 service members killed overseas in foreign wars, from World War I to Operation Enduring Freedom.
Member and former president of the Gilroy Exchange Club, Erwin Boggs, passed out small American flags before the ceremony began. Seeing the robust turnout for Monday’s ceremony was an emotional experience, added Boggs, a U.S. Army veteran who served in the communications department for the 203rd military police battalion and received an honorable discharge in 1958.
“I think sometimes we forget how important it was that our servicemen stood up for what was right – no matter the cost – to secure what we have today,” he continued. “If it wasn’t for that, who knows where we would be.”
During the Memorial Day parade in Gilroy last May, Boggs said he handed out 3,000 flags – reminders that freedom has a price often paid in blood.
“It is emotional. And what is important – it’s really important to me – is we hand the flags to the kids because a lot of them need to know our heritage and where we came from to get to this point,” Boggs said. “It’s not easy.”
After accepting his award, Frank Sanchez lead four Color Guard members in a rifle salute. The group of men fired three blank rounds from stark white M1 rifles. After the salute, a group of children rushed over to where the Color Guard stood, scrounging on the ground for the warm casings below their feet.
“I think it’s just so important to recognize the military out there right now keeping this country safe,” Boggs said. “You see the horrendous things that are going on overseas; they’re not happening here. We saw a very nice crowd out here and I think it’s great we don’t forget our heritage.”
The other Veterans of the Year named by Alejo were: Joyce Hyde of Monterey County, Ray Rodriguez of San Benito County and Al Hopson of Santa Cruz County.
Frank’s story: U.S. Army (1943 – 1945)
Frank Sanchez was born in 1923 in Arizona, moving with his family to Gilroy in 1937. He joined the U.S. Army in 1943 after being drafted and was trained in southern California. After maneuver training in Louisiana, Sanchez was deployed to Kent, England on July 1, 1944 and sailed across the Atlantic on a nine-day trip. Sanchez served one year and nine months in combat during World War II, in England, France, Holland and Germany with the 144th anti-aircraft team fighting in four decisive battles, he said.
While overseas, he married a local girl, Roberta, who he has been married to for 62 years.
“Four months after the war was over, they sent us back to California,” Sanchez said. “I was given my honorable discharge and here I am.”
Frank and Roberta have five children, who are “all grown up now.”
After the war, Sanchez attended San Jose City College and received his credentials and began working for BeGe Manufacturing Company in Gilroy and San Jose. Sanchez retired in 1985 and has since been an active part of the Honor Guard and Color Guard in Gilroy, where he lives.
