Portrait of a Veteran: Julio Perales

In May of ‘69 close to 48,000 men a month were being drafted to fill the ranks needed in Vietnam, according to Christopher High School Supervisor Julio Perales. 

Perales was 18 years old when he received his letter from the Secret Service, stating “Greetings, order to report for induction.” After passing his physical at the Oakland Induction Center, he was off to Fort Lewis, Washington for training, and then off to Vietnam where he served in a specialty unit for the company Echo Recon. Patch had the chance to chat with Perales, and hear about his experience in Vietnam. Here’s what he had to say.

Gilroy Patch: What did your responsibilities include as a member of an Echo Recon team?

Perales: Battalion or headquarters would send us out in six-men teams to areas where they suspect there’s a lot of enemy concentration. They would insert us in these areas, and have us observe anywhere from three-to-five days. So we were the eyes and the ears of what was happening before anybody went in. It was our job not to be detected, to not be compromised, because being compromised was six guys against sometimes 50.

Patch: How did you avoid detection?

Perales: You just have to know where you’re going, know what you’ve got to do. Don’t leave any signs of being there. We were really careful, because if you get careless out there, it will come back and bite you—big time.

Patch: Was your team ever bitten?

Perales: Oh God, yes. During the Tet Offensive of ‘68 they had put our Recon teams up on this hill, and by the morning of the sixth day, I believe, there were only nine of us. We had one guy killed, and a lot of the guys wounded.

We were on the top of this hill, and the sergeant had just come over to tell us our plan of operation, and I don’t know what it was, but something came into my mind. It was like, “Get your ammo, get your ammo.”  I was half way there and I hear this zoom. A rocket had hit. The guy who was next to me, John Lynn, lost an arm, a leg, part of his hand and some other parts because the round hit right where we were at. If I had been there I probably would of lost both of my legs and my arms, but it was just God’s faith. That was the first time since I had been in the country that I really saw the reality of the horror of combat.

Patch: I’ve heard your fellow soldiers become your main form of life support in war. Is that how you feel?

Perales: They do. You establish a camaraderie that will stay with you till your dieing days—especially in a combat environment. You rely on each other for survival. Sometimes your bonds are even closer than with your own brothers because you’re in an environment where life can be taken away so fast. And when you lose somebody, it just really devastates you because these are people you were with, and they’re no longer part of your life. Their journey there has ended, and now they’re going home, and unfortunately they’re going home in the way that none of us wanted to come home.

Patch: Is there one thing in particular that you learned from Vietnam that has stuck with you?

Perales: One thing I learned there is that it took away your innocence of youth, because as young men, being put in that situation, we were compromised in ways we’d never imagine.

So you realize the importance of life, and how it’s important to look at each day with grace, and to make the most out of each day. You learn to appreciate life, and the people around you, because you’ve seen people around you who have just vaporized or disappeared or were killed. And I always think of my three friends, John Lynn, Paul Nelson and Joe Hashing, who were killed during my tour over there, and what their lives might have been.

So I try to live life everyday in a good way. And a reflection of that is with these kids over here. Everyday I try to encourage them, give them positive thinking, let them know that they’re valued and that there’s a lot ahead of them. And to look at each day positive, and before you know it, their thinking and their character will develop into that, and they’re going to go a lot of places. 

Patch: If you could offer some words of wisdom to soldiers currently serving, what would you say?

Perales: I’ve had some recruiting officers that I met here in Gilroy, and I would tell them that when you get there, just always be aware of all your surroundings. Don’t ever take anything for granted. Always learn about where you’re at, what you’re doing, who’s around you. Try to not second guess anything, try to always stay on top of it, and it will get you through a lot of days of staying alive. And before you know it, your tour will be up and you’ll be home.

Patch: How can people show honor on Veterans Day?

Perales: I think people as a whole should observe Veterans Day, not just as being a holiday to be off from work or school, but by actually going into it and saying, "What is Veterans Day?”

So many young men before us made the ultimate sacrifice to defend the freedom and the rights of this country and other countries. It’s not because they were given to us, they were earned by the ultimate sacrifice of so many young men in so many different walks of life through all of these conflicts.

For us it was a conflict in Vietnam where we were called to serve, and we did it as civilians, and came back as veterans. It’s because of all these things that fell in place that we have the freedom we have. When you see veterans or know veterans, honor that day because these are people that made it possible for all of us.