“Mexico Is My Culture, America Is Who I Am”: Serving The Nation As A Citizen In War And Peace

MSG(R) Daniel L. Trevino was born July 1941 in Guadalajara, Mexico, and grew up in Mexico City, Durango, and other places. His mom was divorced for much of his childhood but remarried in 1952. Daniel remembers walking 10 kilometers to go to church and collecting cow manure to burn as firewood. When his mother married an American, he brought the family to the United States. Daniel was excited to come to the United States, even though he felt “ignorant of the culture.” He remembers that his step-father was not very nice and made him work. As a twelve-year-old boy, he picked cotton and was paid $1.50 per 100 pounds. He remembers struggling when he first attended school in the United States because he could not speak the language. He met his future wife when he was 14 at a private school. He dropped out of school after 8th grade and attended a mechanical school when he was 16 or 17 while also working several jobs. He joined the Army to have a better life. He recalls basic training at Ft. Carson, Colorado, and the hard time he had with marching, the altitude, the cold weather, and the snow. He was also issued brown leather combat boots and had to dye them black. He did enjoy firing the M1 rifle, though. Following basic, he was shipped to Ft. Knox, Kentucky, for advanced training and learned to be a tank mechanic on the M-48 and M-60 tanks. In 1960, he was stationed in Germany, and, as the new guy, some of the old hands convinced him to go to town to enjoy the good German beer. Coming back to the barracks, he jumped the fence and was caught by the Military Police, but since he was a good mechanic, he managed to avoid serious consequences. He remembers the tank engines had governors to limit the speed to 40 mph, but he could rig them to go 55 mph. He enjoyed Germany, learning the language and a bit about the culture, but understood that the general German attitude was that Americans were not welcome. He was in Germany when the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred and the Berlin Wall went up. After initial tensions troops continued trading vodka and cigarettes with Soviet and East German troops. Returning to the United States in 1962, he was assigned to C Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry in the 2nd Infantry Division, which reflagged to the 11th Air Assault Division under General Kinard, and Daniel transitioned to being an aircraft mechanic. He remembers one instance while working on an OH-13, when he took off on a maintenance check. As a mechanic he was allowed to fly the aircraft to a limited extent, and throughout his career he gained more experience flying. He was an E-4 and E-5 at this time and recalls the Civil Rights riots and marches occurring in Detroit, Selma, and Montgomery. In 1965, he deployed to Vietnam as a Crew Chief on a UH-1D Huey, assigned to A Company, 227th Assault Battalion in the 1st Cavalry Division at An Khe. When Daniel deployed, his wife and two children lived in Corpus Christi, Texas. He highlights two experiences in May 1966. First, on May 8, his helicopter was the lead aircraft and was hit, resulting in the helicopter landing upside down. Four days later, he was wounded in another incident. He describes the life of a helicopter crew member in Vietnam: sleeping with his eyes and ears open, the humidity, mosquitos and rats, conducting preflight maintenance, and operating the machine gun on missions. He explains how elephant grass prevents air from flowing normally when a helicopter is coming in to an LZ. It creates air transition issues which is why landing in elephant grass is problematic for the pilots and Soldiers have to jump out of the helicopters above the elephant grass. After he was wounded on May 12, 1966, he was evacuated to the division aid station, and then to a hospital in Saigon for 7 days, where he wrote a letter to his wife. He was then evacuated by C-130 to the Philippines and eventually ended up at Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston, where the real treatment started and his wife was able to link up with him. He was in the hospital for nearly a year, from May 1966 to April 30, 1967. He then became an instructor at the Aviation and Logistics School at Ft. Eustis, Virginia, where he tried to prepare his students for what they would experience in Vietnam. By 1968, he was an E-6 and a Helicopter Technical Inspector at Sharpe Army Depot in Lathrop, California, inspecting airframes. In 1968, he returned to Vietnam, this time assigned to C Company, 2nd Battalion, 20th Artillery (Aerial Rocket) in the 1st Cavalry Division. He describes the difference in missions between his first tour and his second, noting that “we didn’t have enough pilots.” In 1969, he returned to the United States (there was no welcome-home like the first time) and was an E-7 Aircraft Maintenance NCOIC at the U.S. Army Flight Training Center at Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia. He remembers teaching Vietnamese Pilots who were returning to the VNAF (South Vietnamese Air Force). In 1972, he returned to Germany, serving first as an Aircraft Quality and Control Inspector in the 210th Aviation Support Group, supporting V Corps, then as a G4 Operational Readiness NCOIC at V Corps Headquarters. In 1975, he returned to the United States and was stationed at Ft. Bragg, serving as an Aircraft Maintenance Inspector and First Sergeant of HHC 12th Combat Aviation Group. He describes some of the issues he faced as First Sergeant. While he was First Sergeant the 12th Combat Aviation Group was transferred to Germany, and he returned to that nation for the third time. After serving as a First Sergeant, he was assigned as the 8th Infantry Division’s Organizational Effectiveness NCOIC, a job that changed his attitudes on a number of issues. In 1984, he returned to the United States and served as the Equal Opportunity NCOIC for the 5th Infantry Division (Mech) at Ft. Polk, Louisiana. He retired from the Army as a Master Sergeant in October 1986, but continued to serve in the United States Army Aviation Systems Command in St. Louis as an Army Aviation Supply and Inventory Specialist and as a Supervisor before retiring in 2006. In 1988, Daniel accepted Jesus and began ministering to others, starting a prison ministry and several churches. Military service is important in his family; one son served in the Air Force for 10 years, a daughter has served in the Army for 29 years, two great-grandchildren are Army Officers, and one great-grandchild is a Marine. He describes becoming a citizen, noting, “I won’t fight for this country unless I can represent it as a citizen.” He describes his service and devotion to the nation saying, “Mexico is my culture, America is who I am.” At the end of his interview, his wife, Maria Paula (Diaz) Trevino, describes her experiences. She was born in 1940 in Corpus Christi, Texas, and her 7 brothers all served in the military. She describes the strange way she met her husband. She talks about their wedding and when Daniel was sent to Vietnam, leaving her in Corpus Christi with two children, Danny and David, which was not easy. She enjoyed the opportunity to live in Germany and visit different parts of Europe, including Spain and Rome (her favorite.) She describes the importance of the Army family and talks about how Army families help each other. At the end of the interview, COL Julia Wilson (DPE), their daughter, shares her love and appreciation for her parents.