"An Infantryman from Hero Street" tells the true story of Pfc. Joseph Sandoval who was born in a boxcar to Mexican immigrants in the Silvis, Illinois rail yard. In 1944 Joe was married with a young son and another on the way when he was drafted and shipped to Britain with the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment. His unit helped fight the second stage of the Normandy Invasion in France. Joe was killed in April 1945 on the Elbe River in Germany on the eve of the historic meeting between U.S. and Soviet allies on that same river just weeks before the war's end. Interviews with family, authors Marc Wilson and Carlos Harrison, and military historians Captain Kevin Braafladt and John C. McManus tell Joe's story of service and sacrifice. Eight sons of Mexican immigrants from the block-and-a-half long 2nd Street in Silvis, Illinois were killed in combat in WWII and Korea--more than any other street in America. The street was renamed Hero Street.
"An Infantryman from Hero Street" tells the true story of Pfc. Joseph Sandoval who was born in a boxcar to Mexican immigrants in the Silvis, Illinois rail yard. In 1944 Joe was married with a young son and another on the way when he was drafted and shipped to Britain with the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment. His unit helped fight the second stage of the Normandy Invasion in France. Joe was killed in April 1945 on the Elbe River in Germany on the eve of the historic meeting between U.S. and Soviet allies on that same river just weeks before the war's end. Interviews with family, authors Marc Wilson and Carlos Harrison, and military historians Captain Kevin Braafladt and John C. McManus tell Joe's story of service and sacrifice. Eight sons of Mexican immigrants from the block-and-a-half long 2nd Street in Silvis, Illinois were killed in combat in WWII and Korea--more than any other street in America. The street was renamed Hero Street.