The following clipping from “The Crescent” of Jan. 25, 1945, was recently passed along to me.  I knew Joseph “Shorty” Mondragon quite well, but he and I never talked about the war. The 3rd Inf. Div., whose insignia had streaks of black and white representing a rifle patch fought side by side with my 45th Inf. Div., who’s patch was the thunderbird.

“Shorty” was wounded and put out of commission at the time I saw my first combat — the invasion at the Angio Beachead in Italy. This comrade gave up his Earthly struggle here in Saguache, and is buried in Hillside Cemetery May he rest in peace!

HISTORY NOTE — The second Oak Leaf Cluster to a Purple Heart was awarded to SSgt. Joseph Mondragon, A 98, by M-Gen. Eugene Landrum, Fri. day December 15, 1944, at Camp Maxey, Texas in a ceremony witnessed by the entire battalion.

General Landrum presented the decoration for a wound suffered by Sgt. Mondragon during the landing at Anzio in February.

Mondragon was a squad leader and was hit by shrapnel a few hours after he had made a landing under withering Nazi fire. He was evacuated to a field hospital, then moved to a Naples hospital.

Later he went to Rome and from there was returned to the United States under the overseas rotation plan, after putting in 23 months of foreign duty. Mondragon participated in the African invasion in November 1942, and there was wounded for the first time, receiving the Purple Heart. His first cluster came later in the Tunisian campaign after he joined in the assault upon Hill 609. There he fought for days with limited ammunition and at one time was down to his last two clips of shells for his gun.

“We were firing at ranges of approximately 100 yards going up that hill,” he recounted. “The British said it couldn’t be taken but we took it.” When the move came to Sicily Mondragon was picked for that show too. He had been with the 3rd Division in Africa and was separated from them while he was in the hospital. However, in Sicily he joined up with his old outfit, the 30th Infantry. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Mondragon of Center who have two other sons in service overseas.