WORLD WAR II

WORLD WAR II - KOREA

U.S. Navy veteran Juan Montano was born in 1926 and joined the Navy at just 17 years old. He enlisted in 1943 after his father received a military draft notice. Juan volunteered to take his father's place, allowing his dad to stay at the Ford Motor Company, where he helped build B-24 Liberator bombers.

Juan completed Navy boot camp and was then sent, along with half of his company, to serve aboard the USS Bell Grove.

The USS Bell Grove sailed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where it picked up soldiers from the 7th Infantry before heading toward Makin Island. It was there that Juan operated a Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel, also known as an LCVP or Higgins boat, for the first time.

Juan was placed in charge of LCVP 2-2, carrying troops and equipment to the beach. This became the first of nine amphibious beach landings he would take part in during World War II.

For the next 18 months, Juan and the crew of the Bell Grove moved from one beach landing to another. At times, Juan and his three-man crew spent weeks living and sleeping aboard their small landing craft.

When Juan was not carrying troops onto beaches, his LCVP was sometimes used to create smoke screens. The smoke helped hide larger ships and landing craft from attacks by Japanese aircraft and naval forces.

When he was back aboard the Bell Grove, Juan's General Quarters position was sometimes at a .30-caliber anti-aircraft gun. He later remembered seeing many Japanese Kamikaze attacks against his ship during operations in the Pacific.

The Bell Grove and her crew took part in nine major amphibious operations, including Makin Island, the Battle of Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, Leyte Gulf, Luzon, Lingayen Gulf, San Pedro Bay, and Iwo Jima. Many of these operations also required repeated trips between the ships and the beaches to deliver more troops, weapons, and supplies.

Iwo Jima became Juan's ninth amphibious landing.

He was ordered to bring troops onto Green Beach, the first beach located below Mount Suribachi.

“The bullets were coming down like rain,” Juan later remembered.

During the landing, another boat from his unit became stuck on Green Beach. Juan refused to leave the crew behind because he knew how to help pull their boat free and get them to safety.

After both boats finally escaped the beach, Juan and the other crew returned to the bay and discovered that the ships were gone.

A Japanese counterattack had forced the slower amphibious ships to move back out to sea for safety. Juan, the two LCVPs, and their crews were left behind and spent two nights defending themselves against enemy attacks.

Juan continued serving in the military after World War II.

During the Korean War, he served aboard several ships, including the USS Naifeh.

After many years of military service and surviving some of the most dangerous battles in the Pacific, Juan finally retired from active duty in 1963.

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Holocaust victim

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