Milwaukee vet returning to S. Korea
He served in Puerto Rico National Guard in the early 1950s
When Cesar Pabon Peres’ sergeant finally found him inside a trench covered in blood, he feared Pabon Peres had been grievously wounded.
It was a frigid February morning in 1952 in Korea and Pabon Peres had been awakened at 3 a.m. by the sound of bugles and small arms fire as screaming Chinese troops attacked, sending wave after wave to hit American lines.
Among the sprinting Chinese soldiers, one veered toward Pabon Peres but a split second before the soldier’s sharp bayonet could pierce his flesh, a buddy crouching nearby shot the attacker, saving Pabon Peres’ life.
The Chinese soldier fell across the trench. Pabon Peres crawled underneath the man’s body, surviving the next 31⁄2 hours until the battle was over and Pabon Peres’ sergeant found him.
“I told him no, the blood is not mine,” Pabon Peres, 89, remembered. “They sent me to an aid station but I wasn’t hurt. By 3 p.m., I was back on the (front) line.”
When Pabon Peres left Korea in 1952, he figured he’d never return to the war-ravaged country. But now the Milwaukee man is going back and he’s excited to see an entirely different country, a modern nation whose citizens are living in a democracy founded in part by the sacrifices of Pabon Peres and others who fought during the Korean War.
Pabon Peres was drafted into the Puerto Rico National Guard in 1950 and the next year was sent to Korea with the famed 65th Infantry Regiment, the only Hispanic-segregated unit of the U.S. Army. Nicknamed the Borinqueneers — the Taino Indian name for Puerto Rico — the unit served with distinction and suffered high casualties. More than 800 were killed or missing in action.
One out of 42 American losses during the Korean War was Puerto Rican “and you have to remember, that island is tiny. It was devastating,” said Noemi Figueroa Soulet, director of a PBS documentary about the 65th Infantry. “There were a lot of funerals in Puerto Rico because of the Korean War.”
A grateful South Korean government began inviting Korean War veterans to return to the country in the 1970s to thank them for their service and show how much the country has changed. Pabon Peres is part of a group of 16 Borinqueneers — and the only Wisconsinite — leaving Sept. 17. With a Spanish-speaking guide, they’ll visit the DMZ, war memorials and Seoul, and will attend a wreath-laying ceremony and a banquet in their honor.
“Korea is now very modern and beautiful and democratic. They want these veterans to see that their sacrifices were not in vain. They’re treated like kings over there,” said Figueroa Soulet, who is coordinating the trip.
The group is visiting during a tense time. The latest nuclear test by North Korea prompted U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley to say dictator Kim Jong Un is “begging for war.”
Pabon Peres said his family doesn’t want him to go.
“To me, that guy (Kim Jong Un) is like a little boy playing with toy guns. Using those weapons, he could destroy a lot of people,” said Pabon Peres. “Gen. (Douglas) MacArthur wanted to go all the way up (through North Korea to the China border) but Truman stopped him. Maybe I wouldn’t be here if Truman had let MacArthur go all the way.”
Growing up in the tropics, many men in the 65th Infantry, including Pabon Peres, saw their first snow in Korea.
“The cold was the worst. Sometimes it got down to 40 below and that was terrible. They gave me only two pair of socks, which were so light. We wore the same clothes for 45, 50 days without showers,” said Pabon Peres.
When he returned to Puerto Rico, Pabon Peres attended college and became a special education teacher. In the late 1960s, he was recruited by the Milwaukee Christian Center to work with young people with behavioral problems. He helped turn the United Community Center into a thriving agency, working there 35 years before retiring. He now volunteers at UCC, where the fitness center is named after him.