Las Cruces to Normandy: The stories of two veterans killed in action
Editor's note: June 6, 2019, is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a bloody but ultimately triumphant turning point in World War II. Two Las Cruces residents are buried near Normandy, the site of the D-Day invasion. Veterans advocate and lifelong Las Cruces resident Dolores Archuleta shares their stories.
Reading about the 75th anniversary of D-Day in the special edition in the Sun-News on June 2 brought back memories of the emotional trip our daughters Patricia, Deb and her husband Marshall and I took to Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
The planned trip was to meet Catherine Meunier and her family, who invited us and offered to be our personal guide in Normandy. Catherine is a member of the organization Les Fleurs de la Memoire (The Flowers of Memory), established to recruit French volunteers to place flowers at the American cemetery in Normandy on D-day and Memorial Day.
On our trip, we were honored and privileged to meet and greet World War II veterans who participated in D-Day. This year’s 75th anniversary will be important because the few remaining D-Day veterans are in their 90s may not be in good enough health to visit Normandy again.
From Damien Willis:My grandfather, the reluctant warrior
Julian D. Melendrez
I was on the Las Cruces City Council in 2009, when we received an email from Catherine explaining that she was taking care of the grave of Julian D. Melendrez from Las Cruces. She asked for a photo of Julian so she could match the name with a face. I quickly checked the names on the wall at the Veterans Memorial Park and found Julian's name with KIA after his name. I then began calling all the Melendrezes listed in the phone book hoping to make a connection with his family.
After many phone calls, Estella Sanchez, who lived in the Mesquite Historic District ,provided me with contact information of Julian’s children, Mary and Frank, who now lived in California.
Mary was then 68 years old and when I reached her, she responded, in tears, that her family didn’t know that her father was buried in Normandy. All they were told by their mother was that he didn’t come home from the war. Her brother Frank had died recently, she said in tears, regretting that he died without knowing where his father was buried.
All she could remember about her father was that he “sneaked out with a suitcase” when she and her brother were 4 or 5 years old. They were crying and asked him why he was leaving. He didn’t say a word, she remembers. Their father “just picked us up, dried our tears and took us back into the house,” she told me at the time.
I later found out that Julian was first reported missing in action on July 23, 1944. The U.S. War Department later followed up in a message to his mother listing him as killed in action during the American and Allied forces invasion of Normandy. He was with the 358 Infantry, 90th Division.
While in Normandy, Catherine took us to the Saint German sur-Seves, the site where Julian was killed. Next to a stream of water, we were surprised to find a memorial built by the Americans and Germans and even more surprised when two German veterans arrived telling us about the “horrific battle” on that site and that now they were all good friends and met annually “to mourn their comrades killed in action.”
Leonardo C. Rodriguez
When I was working on the Memorial Day Candlelight ceremony at Veterans Park, I talked to Leonard Ramirez, a Vietnam Veteran and Purple Heart recipient, who shared with me that he was honoring his uncle Leonardo Rodriguez — whom he was named after.
Leonardo was killed in Normandy and buried near there, but Leonard didn’t know where.
Catherine was able to find Leonardo's grave site in the Lorraine American Cemetery near the city of Metz, France, and provided the family a photo. Leonardo’s remaining family members were all extremely grateful to at least see his headstone and part of the beautiful cemetery.
PFC Leonardo C. Rodriguez was with the 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division and was killed on Sept. 15, 1944. Posthumously, he was awarded the Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster which means that he was wounded twice.
Las Cruces to Normandy
Both Melendrez and Rodriguez lived in the Mesquite Historic District in Las Cruces. Melendrez lived at 1156 N. Campo St. and Rodriguez at 330 E. May Ave. — about one block from each other.
After the war, Las Cruces Police Captain Marcos Saenz recommended to the Rodriguez family that they leave the body of their son buried in Normandy to rest with his comrades.
When Julian Melendrez's daughter Mary saw pictures of her father's grave site, she reconsidered her intentions of bringing the body back to America.
“I found it to be a beautiful place and it would be a shame to disturb his resting place,” she said.
