Louis Gonzaga Mendez Jr.
Colonel Louis Gonzaga Mendez Jr. (July 14, 1915 – September 19, 2001) was a highly decorated United States Army officer of the 82nd Airborne Division who in June 1944, as commander of the 3rd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment during World War II, parachuted behind enemy lines into Normandy and was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for leading an attack that captured the French town of Prétot-Sainte-Suzanne, in the Manche (Basse-Normandie) department. On June 6, 2002, the people of the village honored his memory by renaming Prétot's main square "La Place du Colonel Mendez". Early years Louis Gonzaga Mendez, a Mexican American, Spanish and Navajo Indian, was born in Trinidad, Colorado, on July 14, 1915. He graduated top of his class in high school. After serving in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CC), Mendez was appointed by Governor Bob Carr to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated from West Point in the Class of 1940, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. Mendez earned his Parachutist Badge after attending the Army's United States Army Airborne School. World War II The United States entered World War II in December 1941, after