For more than 20 years, the members of the Santa Paula VFW post have proudly held the title of Mercer-Prieto, paying tribute to brothers Isabel and Ramon Prieto, and brother and sister Herbert and Henrietta Mercer.

All natives of the Santa Paula.

All lost during World War II.

A plaque on the wall just outside the main office of Santa Paula High School bears the names of each Santa Paula High School graduate lost during the second world war.

Among the 30 names are both sets of siblings. The plaque serves a reminder of the sacrifices the small community made more than 60 years ago. This column focuses on the Prieto family.

For Pete Prieto, the Veterans of Foreign Wars name and plaque serve as more than just a reminder of sacrifices. They are part of a legacy for his family who, in all, saw five of its own off to war.

Amando Prieto and Ramon Prieto Sr., raised their families across the street from each other on the north end of Santa Paula in the early 1920s. Amando had three sons: Richard, Edward and Pete. Ramon Sr. had two sons, Ramon Jr. and Isabel, and four daughters. The children became more than neighbors and cousins. They were best friends.

Pete Prieto said he remembers seeing his cousin, Isabel, in his Marine uniform just before he left Santa Paula for the war.

"When I saw him in uniform and how proud he was, I knew that that was what I should do," said Prieto, 84, and now a resident of Simi Valley. "And then when Ramon left for the Army, I knew that I had to be next."

On Dec. 11, 1942, Prieto followed in his cousins' footsteps and enlisted for active duty in World War II. Like Isabel, Pete Prieto chose the Marines.

Preparing for war

Prieto left his home for basic training at the Marine Base in San Diego. By April 1943, he was among 1,400 Marines ordered to board a revamped cargo ship bound for New Zealand.

"I can still see the dirty rooms they had us in," Prieto said. "The ship had just been turned into a transport ship from a cargo ship, so we were all placed in the bottom, where they had the most space. It was just awful."

Meanwhile, Pete's older brothers, Richard and Edward, were also preparing for war. Richard had been drafted into the Army and was eventually sent to combat in Italy, and Edward enlisted in the Marines and was sent to active duty in the Pacific. Pete knew that they were both in the service but lost track of them once he left for New Zealand.

"At that point, I was just hoping we would all get home OK," Pete Prieto said, "and that included Isabel and Ramon because they were just like brothers to us."

Prieto arrived in New Zealand and joined the 2nd Marine Division for combat training. In late November 1943, the 2nd Marine Division invaded Tarawa, located approximately 2,400 miles southwest of Hawaii. Prieto was ordered to stay in the rear to assist with the supply line.

"I remember being in the Higgins landing craft waiting to go ashore and not being able to land because of the rough conditions in the water," he said.

The battle lasted 76 hours, and though the United States claimed victory, it served as a blow to the Marines, who suffered nearly 3,000 casualties.

A brother found

After the Battle of Tarawa, Pete was sent to Hawaii to help build and prepare a Marine base on the Big Island. After several months of training, he returned to New Zealand, and by early June 1944, Pete and the 2nd Marine Division were en route to Saipan to prepare for an Allied invasion of the island.

When the battle was over in early July, Prieto was assigned to meet a convoy of U.S. reinforcement troops and take them to different camps to prepare for another invasion. This time the destination was Okinawa.

"One of the new guys there saw me and went up to his friend and asked if he had a brother because he saw a guy that looked just like him," Prieto said. "His friend turned out to be my brother Edward, who was with the 6th Marine Division."

The two were reunited for several months of training to prepare for a landing in Okinawa in April 1945. They were both to be part of a fake landing on the southern end of the islands.

"The main forces landed on the northern end, but we were sent to throw the Japanese off," Pete Prieto said.

When their part of the battle was over, Edward and Pete joined their divisions on separate ships that were part of a convoy headed back to Saipan.

"When we were on our way, a Kamikaze hit Edward's ship," Pete Prieto said. "All I saw was smoke, but there wasn't anything we could do because of our position. Another ship had to help, and we had to keep going."

Pete waited to hear if Edward survived the attack.

"About two months later, I got a letter from Edward saying that he had been sent to China," Prieto said. "Boy was that a relief."

After the atomic bombs were dropped in August 1945, Pete was sent to Nagasaki as part of a group of occupational troops. In late December, he received notice that it was his turn to go home. He returned to the U.S. in early January, and was discharged from the Marines on Jan. 21, 1946.

"Other than Edward, I didn't know anything about what happened to Richard or my cousins," he said.

When he returned, Pete learned of their fate.

Isabel had been killed after the invasion of Bougainville in 1943. Ramon was a paratrooper and was killed in France during the D-Day invasion.

The family's legacy

Richard, Edward and Pete survived the war and returned home to a family that was grateful to see them, but who was also mourning the loss of two of their own.

"It was a shock to me because I just never thought that they wouldn't make it home," Pete Prieto said. "It was a hard time for our family."

Isabel and Ramon did eventually return home, and were buried in the Pierce Brothers Santa Paula Cemetery as heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Pete Prieto said that he and his brothers rarely discussed the war after they returned.

"It just never came up," he said, "and I think we just wanted to leave it be."

Richard died in 1994, leaving Edward and Pete as the remaining two of the original five who fought in the war.

"I sometimes wish we had all talked about it more so that we could know the details about what really happened to each other," Pete Prieto said.

Something they will always have is pride in their family's legacy, a legacy of five cousins who sacrificed everything in the name of freedom.

— Of War and Life is a twice-monthly column that tells the stories of area veterans. You can contact Jauregui at jmjaureg@callutheran.edu or by mail at Jannette Jauregui, c/o Ventura County Star editorial department, P.O. Box 6006, Camarillo, CA 93011. The information included in this report is based on the recollections of the veterans.