At the Carbon County Historical Society meeting that took place on Thursday evening in the senior citizen center, World War II Veteran Al Trujillo was invited to speak on his memories of the war.
Trujillo stated that he was placed in very interesting positions while he served. First, Trujillo was sent to a training camp that was located in Florida. Trujillo and a group of other soldiers spent about 13 weeks in Tampa where they learned that there were troops being trained to serve either in the Pacific or Europe.
After basic training, the troops were asked were they wanted to serve. Trujillo stated that he did not want to go to the East, so instead he chose Europe. When the troops began picking their area, Trujillo’s group was one of the last. However, Trujillo himself was not called.
“I thought ‘well, maybe I’ll get out of this altogether,'” Trujillo joked. Trujillo was then called into a room privately and was told that instead he was being sent to Washington D.C. for a special project. He was placed on train and shipped out almost immediately. He remembers how intimated he felt by Washington D.C., having grown up in a town of 700 people.
The special class Trujillo was sent to had majors, captains, sergeants and young privates such as himself. A series of examinations were conducted with the end result being that Trujillo was chosen for aerial photography. There were not many maps of Western Europe at the time of the War. It was one of Trujillo’s assignments to study the aerial photos with other troop members and and come up with an understanding of the area.
There were about 50 members working on the project. After a brief stint in Europe, they were sent to London to perform a study of France, Germany and Spain to look at fortifications. Quite a bit of time was spent on this part of the project.
“I went from private to staff sergeant in one hop,” stated Trujillo.
Trujillo and a few others were then picked to be apart of a group that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill chose himself. They were informed that what they were to do was above top secret. They were to work on the planning of the Europe invasion.
“It was really thrilling,” Trujillo shared.
They were in charge of a thorough study of the region. The project was conducted from December to February. Using aerial photography, Trujillo and the others were able to identify places in the fences that had weaknesses.
Once the attack was planned, Trujillo and three other members decided they wanted to be a part of more than the planning. However, they were informed that since they were the ones that helped plan the attack, they weren’t allowed because they were too informed. Determined to help, Trujillo and the others flew to London to ask permission. There, they received a brief parachute training in order to be apart of the aerial attack.
The Carbon County Historical Society plays host to many guests like Trujillo that share interesting and exciting tales of days long ago.
