Chief Petty Officer Manuel Ray Perez (1920-2003) was a D-Day hero


Twenty-something New Mexico native Manuel Ray Perez had already been honorably discharged by the U.S. Army, but after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that started World War II, he knew he had to get back in the fight.

That determination, and a toss of the coin, put him on Omaha Beach, Normandy, Nazi-occupied France, on D-Day, 78 years ago today.

OFFICIAL DEFENSE DEPARTMENT BIOGRAPHY:

He was a yeoman on “Easy Red” sector of Omaha Beach with the 6th Beach Battalion — bullets screaming past him and hitting buddies and strangers all around during the Invasion of Normandy. And he was there because all he won a coin toss.

Mas…Chief Petty Officer Manuel Ray Perez (1920-2003) was a D-Day hero

As Hispanic Heritage Month 2021 ends, Brooklyn Hispanics try to carry on

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(PNS reporting from BROOKLYN) Hispanic Heritage Month is ending, and without the corporate-approved celebration as a focus, local members of the Hispanic/Latino/Latinx community here aren’t really sure how they can go on being local members of the local Hispanic/Latino/Latinx community here.

“What now?” lamented Brooklyn native and prolific bloguera Marielena Gutierrez (photo, below).

“Should I tell people to call me Mary Ellen for the remaining 11 months of the year? It’s not like they ever pronounce it right anyway,” she wrote on her PobrePickle blog.

Mas…As Hispanic Heritage Month 2021 ends, Brooklyn Hispanics try to carry on