Entered Service: 1940

Hector P. Garcia, a 1940 graduate of the University of Texas Medical School, joined the Army during World War II, serving in North Africa and Italy as an infantryman and combat engineer until Army officials found out he was a doctor. He earned the Bronze Star Medal with six battle stars in Italy.

After the war, he opened a medical practice in Corpus Christi and worked as a contract physician for the Veterans Administration. That's when he discovered his employer was denying proper medical treatment and educational benefits to Mexican-American war veterans. He founded the American G.I. Forum on March 26, 1948, to fight that discrimination.

In 1949, a disturbing incident convinced Garcia the G.I. Forum needed to fight for more than veterans benefits. Army Pvt. Felix Longoria was killed on June 15, 1945, while on patrol in the Philippines to flush out retreating Japanese. It took nearly four years to identify and return his remains to his family. A funeral director in Three Rivers, Texas, told the family the Anglo community "wouldn't stand for" his remains to lie in the chapel for a wake, but he offered to arrange for Longoria's burial in the segregated "Mexican" cemetery, separated by barbed wire. Longoria's widow called Garcia for help. Garcia called the funeral home and asked permission to use the chapel. The director told him no Mexican-American had ever used the chapel and he wouldn't allow it because it might offend the whites.

Garcia reported the conversation to a Corpus Christi newspaper reporter and sent 17 telegrams to congressmen, senators, a governor and other reporters. The telegrams stated, "The denial was a direct contradiction of those same principles for which this American soldier made the supreme sacrifice in giving his life for his country, and for the same people who deny him the last funeral rites deserving of any American hero regardless of his origin."

The statement was aired internationally by radio broadcasters Drew Pearson, Westbrook Pegler and Walter Winchell, who said: "The State of Texas, which looms so large on the map, looks so small tonight'"

Within 24 hours, the founder of the newly organized American G.I. Forum received a telegram from then Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson that read, in part: "I deeply regret to learn that the prejudice of some individuals extends even beyond this life. I have no authority over civilian funeral homes. Nor does the federal government. However, I have made arrangements to have Felix Longoria buried with full military honors in Arlington ( Va. ) National Cemetery ' where the honored dead of our nation's war rest." Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson and President Truman's personal aide, Maj. Gen. Harry Vaughn, attended Longoria's funeral on Feb. 16, 1949.

The incident propelled the G.I. Forum's civil rights agenda to national attention. With its headquarters in Austin, Texas, the forum has evolved from a veterans' rights group into a civil rights organization with more than 160,000 members in 500 chapters in 24 states and Puerto Rico. Today it serves all Hispanics and promotes greater participation in civic affairs, educational attainment, employment, equality in income and health services.