Veteran gets Purple Heart decades after WWII battle

Associated Press Col. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost presents Hilario L. Riojas with a Purple Heart on Monday in San Antonio for combat wounds he suffered during World War II. Riojas, a corporal was authorized the award for his actions but it was never presented.

SAN ANTONIO—Hilario Riojas waited decades to tell his family of the serious wounds he suffered in World War II.

Official recognition finally came Monday, the eve of Veterans Day, when the 87-year-old was awarded a Purple Heart 63 years after he was wounded in a major battle in Europe.

“I’m just proud of my dad finally being recognized. It’s been so many years,” daughter Mary Helen Leal said after a brief ceremony at Randolph Air Force Base.

Riojas, a Karnes City native, joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 and answered a call for volunteers to serve with the regular Army. He was in the Rhineland Campaign, a brutal five-week battle in the winter of 1945 known as the “last great stand-up fight” of the war. The outcomes were grim for the Allies and devastating for the Germans, who lost essential war-fighting equipment and had some 300,000 troops killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

Assaults on fortified villages and intense bloodshed in the Reichswald Forest gave the region a reputation as “the last great killing ground” in the West. Riojas, a corporal, was hit by shrapnel from German artillery fire in the lower body and leg.

Riojas was one of eight in his 50-man unit who survived, his oldest son, Art Riojas, said in Tuesday’s editions of the San Antonio Express-News. Art Riojas started trying to secure the medal in 2004 after his father started telling his family about his war experience.

After the Reichswald battle, Riojas was moved to another combat unit, and his war wounds were never acknowledged when he returned to Karnes City. With help from the Army and Veterans Affairs Department, his son confirmed he had been wounded in battle.

Riojas encouraged young military members to keep fighting, as his generation did.

“We fought hard. We never gave up,” he said. “Don’t freeze. Pull the trigger.”

Col. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, commander of Randolph’s 12th Flying Training Wing, presented the medal, saying Riojas embodied the spirit of many veterans who risked everything but didn’t seek credit.

“There are thousands like Cpl. Riojas from World War II, Vietnam and other conflicts who never were recognized,” she said.