Marisa Dowd, Delaynee Watson

22, March, 2007

Period 6/U.S. History

King High Remembers

Al Aguilar: An Entire Lifetime in an Hour

The veteran our group interviewed for “King High Remembers” was named Al Aguilar.

When he was young he never imagined going into the military; he was rebellious and undisciplined. However, life being as unpredictable as it is, he chose the Army instead of jail time. The Army, according to Mr. Aguilar, changed him into a mature, reliable young man.

During our time with him, he seemed to be more concerned with telling us what he learned in the

Army and from his own life in general, than focusing on the details. He said “to keep our eyes open” and he expressed this several times throughout the time we had with him.

As a young man, growing up in East Los Angeles, Al was kicked out of his house by his own mother and forced to live out of the back of abandoned cars or sleep on the streets. Al learned to fight for is life on the streets of America, which left him less than loyal to his own country. He was seventeen when his probation officer drove him to the recruiter office with this choice, “armed forces or jail.” Al joined the Army because no other branch of the military because of his criminal record. Originally he wanted to sign up for the Marine Core but because of the record with the law he decided on his second choice, the Army and he got in too. He recalled “If the Army was that hard, I’m sure as hell glad I didn’t join the Marines.”

After joining the Army in 1973 for originally two years, he was sent out to ORD, which is a school in San Diego for training. Al had difficulty reading the forms since he was a high school drop-out and signed up for artillery thinking it was “art”. When he graduated he assumed that he would be going to Vietnam, however, his class was the first not to go, which he got “a lot of crap” for. Instead, he was shipped to Germany, where he had his own adventures. He was stationed at the “iron curtain,” as a patrolman; the line between us and the Germans.

He traveled all over the world, such as, England, Austria and Paris, where he learned so many things. He spoke of a time when he and his friends were playing in a field, where they came upon a hole and planks of wood. They lifted the wood only to discover a hole which they climbed into and stumbled upon it a German underground passageway that hid the Nazi army across the country. They were staring straight at history and he said “from that moment he loved history” and this coming from the guy who used to bring a pillow to history class.

After serving his time as a soldier, he wanted to become a medic because he said “I didn’t want to hand out bullets anymore, I wanted to handout band-aids.” He cared about everyone he treated. He was never in a combat, but he saw many people die in training accidents and others because of stupid things because, as he saw it, “young people think they are invincible. He said he used to ask the men of his troop why they had joined the army and one man in particular stuck out. This young man felt he owed it to our country for all it had done for his family, imagine the young man’s surprise when he found out that he gets paid for his service. This shows how amazing this country can be compared to the rest of the world. He told us of how in Germany,

German officers would illegally search you or hold you in their prisons as long as they like, no questions necessary. He recalled how “people would come off the plane or ship to America and kiss he ground.”

Al Aguilar served two years of active duty and 28 years in the reserves and got out of the army in 2004. In our interview, Mr. Aguilar gave us some great advice, “watch what your government does, not what they say.” He also told us “you never know how big it is until you get above it and look down.” It takes time and distance to understand the impact of the events in history. He now spends his days working as a school bus driver and raising his children and step- children. He stated “It’s weird to think that the kids that get on his the bus have no idea that they are staring at an American Hero.”