A hero’s family

When Frank Parra Sanchez passed away at the end of the year, Gilroy lost one of its heroes. According to his brother Ed Sanchez, USAF (ret.) Korean War vet, Frank was on Omaha Beach
on D-Day. A month earlier in 1944 my Uncle Ben was killed on Anzio Beach, Italy, while my Uncle Jack, Navy C.B., was recuperating in hospital, and while my Uncle Andy was serving in the Army Air Corps, and while my Dad was on Kwajalein Island in the Marshalls, where he did GRS (graves registration service). I recall that Sig Sanchez was a Santa Clara County supervisor, and Debbie Sanchez was a former president of Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.
So, I move for a hat’s off to Frank Parra Sanchez and the rest of the Sanchez family. Ed runs the Gilroy Citizenship-Education Programs, Inc., a non-profit at my old office building in Gilroy at Dry Creek Village. He is currently being treated at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto.
Joseph P. Thompson