Mineola Middle School recently held a special ceremony to honor Oracio “Ray” Vaz, who is a decorated WWII veteran and Mineola resident.
Serving in the 90th Army division after volunteering at the age of 17, he was in the D-Day invasion and the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp and has earned two Purple Hearts and the Oak Leaf Cluster. Vaz has visited with Mineola students each year to discuss his experiences at war.
“I jumped off the landing craft and went straight down…over my head,” Vaz, 88, said in a recent interview with the Mineola American. “I can’t swim. Luckily, I had a Mae West [a life jacket]. I put that on and took my helmet off, lost my rifle. At that time, I felt for my life. I paddled my way in and picked up a rifle off the ground.”
As part of the ceremony, sixth-graders Meghan Heckleman, Jennifer Moglia and Ana Victoria Serna created a living history project of a 20-minute video to capture Vaz’s story.
Vaz arrived in England in May 1944 and said, at first, all he did was march, do drills and prepare for what may happen. Vaz knew something was up, but couldn’t put his finger on it.
“About a week before D-Day, we were up on the northern part of England,” Vaz said gesturing to the open air. “We got on trucks and they took us down to Southampton in England. They took us into a big tent. That tent was every bit as half the size of a football field and they had MPs (military police) every 20 or 30 feet.”
With his entire family and the school present, he was presented with a certificate of appreciation for making history come alive and for the focus and determination shown during his time in the service.
-Rich Forestano contributed to this report
