Morris Riojas
By Frank Trejo
Morris Riojas lived through some of the most horrific and brutal fighting of the Pacific during World War II.
In campaigns from the Solomon Islands to the Philippines, he witnessed countless deaths, both Japanese and allied soldiers, and was himself wounded three times.
"I don't know how I got through it," he said, sitting in the kitchen of the East Austin home he built after returning home from his service in World War II. "You just lived from day-to-day and just prayed a lot."