Henry Cervantes, Mexican American farmworker turned WWII bomber pilot, dies at 100
APRIL 28, 2024 JIREH DENG - LOS ANGELES TIMES
8:52 a.m. April 26, 2024: A previous headline on this story referred to Henry Cervantes as a fighter pilot in World War II. He flew bombers.
Henry Cervantes was a Fresno-born, 19-year-old son of Mexican farmworkers when the Navy told him in 1942 that he could not fight for his country.
An enlistment officer sent him home, saying the Navy didn’t take Mexicans, Filipinos or Black people. In an interview with the American Patriots of Latino Heritage, Cervantes said he directed a couple of choice epithets at the officer and declared, “I’ll prove you wrong,” before running out the door.
He found a spot instead in the Army and the Army Air Force, where he flew more than two dozen missions as part of the “Bloody 100th” Bomb Group. He later served as a test pilot and flight instructor, among other roles, before retiring as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force in the mid-1960s.
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/04/henry-cervantes-mexican-american-farmworker-turned-wwii-bomber-pilot-dies-at-100/
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