Benjamin Arriola (brother of Fernando Arriola)

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My name’s Benjamin Arriola

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and first name, you spell it B-e-n-j-

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a-m-i-n, that’s Benjamin.  The last name’s

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Arriola, it’s A-r-r-i-o-

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l-a.  What is the ethnic origin of last name, Arriola?

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Actually, Arriola, it starts, actually, it started in Spain,

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which means a rock quarry, and

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that’s where it started.  I got that information.

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When were you born, and where were you born?  I was born here

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in El Paso, back in October the 10th, 1934.

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And tell me about your family.

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Oh, yes.  We were a small family,

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it was my dad, my mom, and three children.  I was the youngest.

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What it was is that my dad took off to Mexico

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with another woman, with another family.

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The responsibility fell mostly on my mother

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because she was unemployed, and she had to

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go back and find a job, which she did,

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and raised three children.  And we lived in a very poor,

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naturally, a very poor side of,

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well, very poor part of the city

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and that’s the only thing we could afford.

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But she did, she raised us up.  Well,

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first of all, she raised all three of us, put us through school.  Anyway, grammar school.

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But my older brother, Fernando,

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what happened is that he found that for him

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to go out and work construction and

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whatever it was, it was very hard on him, so he said,

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“You know, Mom, I would like to join the army.”

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And that’s, he volunteered for the army.

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He joined back in 1948.  1948?  So what happened to him?

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Well, what happened is that first, he went through training

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in California, then, that was back in

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‘48, ‘49.  Then, he was stationed

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in Japan, they shipped him up to Japan,

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and then there, when he was training,

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the Korean War broke out.  Now,

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he was with the 7th Division,

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32nd Infantry Regiment,

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Company A, and he,

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the, actually, they, he was involved, with others,

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in the landing in Inchon.

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The Inchon landing was strategy by

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MacArthur to actually cut the

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North Koreans.  Yeah?  And he was

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involved in that particular landing.  Right after that, they moved him

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all the way from around the peninsula and

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and he landed on the other side,

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which was the east side,

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and, I think it’s Onsong, and from there, they actually moved

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straight north, up to the Chosin Reservoir.  There at the Chosin Reservoir,

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well, I’m, well, they stopped at the right next, I’ll say

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they stopped at the Yellow River.  And MacArthur said,

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“We’re not going any further.  We’re gonna stay here.  And

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there was a discussion, I’m sure, that was

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strategy involved there, I’m just staying there,

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and all this time,

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Chinese were thinking of invading or

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coming down.  Consequently, they came down

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in big numbers, and he was lost,

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he was MIA.  He’s still MIA.  So he was lost

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in Chosin battle?  In the Chosin battle, yes.  When were you notified as MIA

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about your brother?

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Well, we-   Your brother’s name is Fernando.  Fernando.

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F-e-r-n-a-n-d-o. Yes, it is.

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When were you notified about your brother?

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Well, I would, I don’t remember because I was

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fourteen, fourteen years of age, but I would, 1950,

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I would think that he was notified…

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Let’s see, I would say in 1952.

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Because by then the war was going,

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and I think my mother received a telegram that he was Missing

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in Action.  Do you still have that telegram?  I

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do not.  But the only correspondence that I

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do have, I didn’t bring it with me, is about

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his commander that he apologized, I mean not apologized,

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but he informed my mother that he had been lost.  So you still have that correspondence?

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Yes, I think I do.  Okay.  I have to, I have to check on that.

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But not the telegram.  I don’t know what she did with the telegram.

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But my mother’s dead now, my sister is also dead,

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and I’m the only survivor, so.  So when,

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what school did you go through, you go through?  When, what school did you go through?

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Well, we lived in a poor side of, I’ll say, of the

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city and there was a

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grammar school, Franklin School.  Grammar school.

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And now, I attended there up to the sixth grade, and from there,

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I went to junior high,

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which was Bowie High School, and then I

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I was there from seventh, eighth, until I graduated in

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1952. What

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high school?  This is Bowie High School.  B-o-w-i-e

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High School.

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In 1952?   May of 1952.  Okay.

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What happened to you then?  Well, actually,

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after I’d, then, I, after I graduated

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I, I looked for a job and I worked at the service station.

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From there on, I, then I applied for El Paso,

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El Paso Natural Gas Company, and

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I worked there for thirty-three years, and I was a

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printing supervisor.  Mostly, my responsibility was the

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bindery, which I became the bindery supervisor.  And I worked there for thirty-three

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years, and I retired.  And presently I’m…  Did you ever join the military?

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I did not, and the reason is this: since there was only

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three of us in the family, was the children, and I

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went to the registration, and he said,

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and I told him that I was the only, my dad had left, my brother had left, I was the

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only survivor, and I was helping my mother.

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Support.  And they gave me a 4-A, I was classified as a 4-A.  4?

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4-A.  A?  Means?  Which is, that’s

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that’s a deferment, that means that

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you don’t have to to

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actually report unless they need you.  So you told me that you have some pictures of your brother, right?

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Yes.  The first one, that’s my brother, Fernando.

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He’s the one that served in Korea, Missing in Action.

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Second to him is my sister, Lucy.

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She passed away ten years ago, and then that’s me,

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the youngest one on the very end.  And, I’ll tell you, that’s a few years ago.

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But then, that’s the only picture we have, that I

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have of three of us.  Beautiful family.

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Thank you.

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Fernando, you…  No, Fernando, Lucy, and Ben.  And Ben.

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Beautiful.  Well, thank you, thank you very much.  Yeah, very handsome and very pretty.

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Well, thank you.  I, I will tell you that

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my grandfather was from Germany

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and, there, see I would say

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he passed the genes over to my mother, which is half German,

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and we have some German blood in us, maybe that’s the difference.  Okay.

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Plus, we have Indian blood from my father, from Mexico.

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So then show me another picture.

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This is Fernando, and this is El Paso, Texas, when he was born.

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US Army Corporal, Missing in Action – Presumed Dead,

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December the 2nd, 1950.  And this is

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the, the, the Company that

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he served for: Company A, 32nd Infantry, which I mentioned

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also, in the fighting the enemy in North Korea,

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December the 2nd.  And he was presumed

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dead December the 31st.  Now under here, it says

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the awards.  A Purple Heart, the Combat

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Infantry Badge, the Korean Service, the United

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Nations Service Medal, and the National Defense Service

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Medal.  I have received,

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I would say, a certificate: United States of America

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honors the memory of Fernando Arriola, and this certified that he was a

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grateful, you know, for a grateful nation and the Armed Service.

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It was actually sent to me by Lyndon Johnson.

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And then, also in memory of Fernando Arriola,

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same thing, who died in the military operation in Korea.

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On this particular one, it’s Eisenhower,

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General Eisenhower.  But then, he was president.

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Now, also, I have certificates

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of the Pearl Harbor.  Let me see if I can…

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Which he was given.  Was he also in the World War II?

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No, he was not.

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But this, actually this certificate and the medal,

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I received it afterwards.  Tell me about it.

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Well, see, I imagine that when you’re

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Missing in Action, well, he was in action for sure,

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and he was probably wounded.

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And now, there’s no record of that,

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but the government went ahead and sent me,

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or the family, the Purple Heart, which I do have it there at the

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house.  And then, I

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I was, you know, I was received this back in 1954,

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that the president requests that I inform you of the Purple Heart,

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and that was it.  Not only that, but I have received correspondence

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from the, from the, from Korea.

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And on this particular one, the President of the Republic,

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Kim Dae-jung, he has sent us these,

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both in English and in-  Korea?

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in Korean, for sure.  They also,

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I received other certificates

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from the Korean government, and this one’s from

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the retired general, Choi, Seung-Woo.

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Korea.  Now,

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which I have, which is very interesting, to me anyway,

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is that every year, I do get…

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I’m sure others do receive, but what I hold here in my hand

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is actually Christmas cards,

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given, actually sent to me, by Bill Clinton, our

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president.  Look, there

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we go, and

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this one’s…  The latest ones:

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Hillary Clinton,

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Bill Clinton, all of these.

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And this one’s the latest one: I received the Christmas from

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Barack, or President Obama.  What I have here

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is a picture my brother that was…

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He took this picture just before he, he

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returned to El Paso, where we lived.  This is a picture of him

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in the barracks, where he lived.

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And this is a card

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signifying that he was a Catholic, anyway active in the Catholic-  How did you get that picture?

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This one here?  No.  This one?  No.

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This one?  Yeah, I think this was sent by a,

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by a friend of his.  And he also,

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before he went to Japan, he was

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sending pictures, pictures of himself and his friends

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to us.  And this is another picture

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of him, and this is one of his friends,

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Joe, that did, was there with him at the

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barracks training.  This is

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him over here.  You can see it, when he was involved in sports

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and used to run the high hurdles.

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This is the ship, the USS Patrick,

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that, that actually took him to Japan,

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that they shipped out of Seattle to Japan.

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And these are friends of his,

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and you can say they

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loved to take pictures.  There’s a couple, see the, the

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whole, the company that

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he was, that he was, that he belonged to.

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And… Let me see if I’ve got another one.  Yeah.

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This picture over here is the

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company that he belonged to, this is the 32nd Company A,

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and he’s there somewhere.  He has more pictures of his friends right

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there.  Okay, my brother, while he was in the army,

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he actually was a boxer, and some, I think it was during,

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when they were shipping out, they removed, say, when they were in the

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ship and going to Japan, he got in a bout,

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and they knocked the teeth, one of his, one of his

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teeth, the, the, the canine tooth

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was, was actually, he lost his canine tooth.

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And when they declared him Missing in Action,

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they sent back the cameras, they sent back all the

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pictures and correspondence, and they sent me

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his canine tooth.  And what I’ve done with this, is that I have

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actually given it to the Defense Department in Hawaii,

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and they have actually removed some of the DNA, and they have it

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recorded, and if they do ever find it-  His remains, and it will be the evidence.  The evidence-  For matching DNA.

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DNA, exactly.  So that’s

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about it.  But then lately, the reason I

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I know more about the Chosin

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Reservoir is because I have this book that I’ve read it a couple of times.

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And it tells me just what really happened at the

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Chosin Reservoir.  The different chapters.  And I’ve

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underlined several things that have happened there that were

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very, I would say,

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hurtful.  One was the weather that they suffered-  Why don’t you read it?

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Okay.  Actually, east of the Chosin, and it’s actually the…

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written by Roy Appleman.

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Yeah.  And what happened is this man did a lotta research

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on the Chosin.  He actually interviewed

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many of the ones that, that came back.

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And that there weren’t that many, few.  And they have

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different battles, and at the end, more important, is it has,

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this is very interesting, it tells you the number

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of fighting men that were there at the beginning of

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Chosin and number that came back.  There were two thousand and only two hundred

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came back.  Okay.  So, my brother was one of the

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ones that did not come back.  So, your brother is still Missing in Action.  Yes, he is.

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And you would love to have his remains back.

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And that’s why the Americans and Korean governments are working so hard.  Do you know anything about Korea?

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Yes.  Where he fought for?  Yes, I did.  Tell me about that.

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I have, the, I’ll say, the government has a program, and it’s called…

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Revisit Program?  Revisit Program, thank you.

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And it’s Revisit, and I’ve been there, and I’ve visited Korea.  I’ve been

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to Seoul, Incheon.  And I visited the

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memorials, and…  And it gives me goose pimples, because I just

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think of a country and what happened there, my brother’s still

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there.  And it’s, it’s, it’s, I guess it’s, it hurts me.  To see that he gave

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his life, he’s still there, and I can’t find him.

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I would be a very…

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I would think, it would be, before I would die, because I’m the last one of the family,

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to actually receive his remains.  And then he’ll be here, with me in El Paso.

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And you’ve done,

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what you have done in the last sixty-four years, it’s

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just amazing.  To be on the top of the world.  So,

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my brother’s sacrifice and all the other sacrifices was

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sure worth it.  Thank you very much for

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recognizing and keep us, you know, informed,

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and we appreciate everything you do for us.

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Thank you very much, Ben, for sharing your

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brother’s story, and you’re

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so passionate about the possibility for the return of your

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brother’s remains.  We will pray together, and we

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hope that you can put a closure

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on his whole service.  On behalf of Korean nation, we thank you.  Thank you.

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Your brother.  Yes, thank you.