A Paratrooper in the Pacific

By Jack Emery

Anthony Duane Lopez

November 9, 1924 – September 5, 2019

Anthony Lopez posing in his 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment uniform. (Find a Grave)

Anthony Lopez and his four brothers were raised by their single mother during the height of the Great Depression. Despite the hardships he faced growing up, Tony did his duty to his country and volunteered for the Army as soon as he graduated high school. Lopez was part of the elite 503rd Parachute Infantry regiment and served with distinction throughout the Pacific. Still facing hardship upon returning home, Tony was turned away by businesses looking for someone with experience. Tony had experienced nothing in his young adult life except war—so he took it upon himself to succeed, opening his own automotive garage in Denver. While the war robbed Anthony of his early adult years, the resiliency and self-reliance he developed helped him succeed and thrive later in life.

Anthony Duane Lopez was born on November 9, 1924 in Rodey, New Mexico to Loretta Lopez. When he was four years old, Lopez and his mother and four brothers moved to Greeley, Colorado before finally settling in Denver two years later. Tony was a self-proclaimed “ruffian kid” who spent his days shooting jackrabbits, playing baseball, and riding his bike from Denver to Red Rocks.[1] He went to Cole Junior High School in Denver, where he met Mary Louise Jimenez. Both Tony and Mary Louise would later attend Manual High School.[2] When Tony graduated in 1942, he decided to enlist in the Army to serve his country, and by April of 1943, he had completed basic training at Camp Roberts in California. During basic training, Tony volunteered to go to Fort Benning, Georgia to complete jump school and paratrooper training. In August of 1943, Tony got his jump wings and was sent to Brisbane, Australia to join the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment. Once he arrived in Australia, Tony and the rest of the 503rd was sent to Bougainville and Hollandia, islands in New Guinea, for extensive jungle training.[3]

In July of 1944, Tony completed his first combat jump when the 503rd was tasked with taking the island of Noemfoor, a small coral island that was part of New Guinea. The conditions were rough on Noemfoor, with a layer of hard coral that prevented the troopers from digging foxholes. Tony and the 503rd spent almost three months clearing entrenched Japanese soldiers out of their caves and bunkers. After the fighting on Noemfoor died down, the 503rd was rotated back to Port Moresby, New Guinea before shipping out to the Philippines in October.[4]

On their way to the Philippines, Lopez’s convoy was harassed by Japanese Kamikaze attacks until they arrived at Leyte. The 503rd amphibiously landed unopposed on Leyte, where they set up beach defenses in anticipation of a Japanese assault that would never come. The 503rd again landed amphibiously on Mindoro, the seventh largest island in the Philippines. They did not face any resistance on Mindoro, and the island would eventually become the regiment’s base for the rest of the war. After setting up their base, they began preparing for their next combat jump onto the fortress island of Corregidor.[5]

Corregidor presented a number of new challenges and enemy tactics that took their toll on Lopez and his fellow paratroopers. The drop zone was very small and the 503rd had to jump below 400 feet and in groups of six instead of twelve. Lopez was unable to make a clean jump and had to be rescued from a tree, where he couldn’t release his harness, by a combat photographer from the same plane. The next day, after the pair rejoined their unit, they saw a wounded paratrooper down in the ravine next to the barracks that served as their defensive base. When Tony’s lieutenant and another soldier went to recover the man, they were shot at and wounded by a Japanese machine gun team, who were using the wounded American as bait. Tony and his buddy, Bob, went to help the wounded paratrooper.[6]

“We went into the barracks and, pulled one of the bed springs off the wall,” Tony recounted. “Then we told the guys, ‘You better cover us because we’re not taking weapons.’” They reached the downed man and made it back to within 30 yards of the American lines before the Japanese soldiers opened fire on the three men. “As soon as we hit that opening, they opened up again. Wham! Wham! Wham! I could see the damn dirt flying up. I swear I heard a thud and I saw the guy [we were carrying] twitch. And I thought ‘Oh god they hit him again.’ At the same time that I got hit and Bob got hit, I saw him twitch on the stretcher.” “We finally got in behind some boulders where we could go up to friendly lines. And I said ‘Go Bob go! Or else we’re all dead!’ So he turned around and he was just dragging [his leg] and he pulled the stretcher up and I kept pushing from behind until we finally got to some boulders where we were okay.” [7]

Bob and the wounded paratrooper went directly to the aid station, but Tony could still walk so he stayed with his men through the night – a night which saw a Japanese counterattack that Lopez and his men repelled, killing dozens of charging enemies. The following day, Tony led operations to clear and seal Japanese caves and bunkers until the pain from his leg wound was too much and he was evacuated to the aid station. From there, Tony was moved to a hospital on Leyte where he recovered for two weeks before hitching a ride back to Mindoro with rest of the 503rd.[8] While Tony’s squad was clearing out the ridges surrounding their position, the rest of the 503rd was engaged in similar operations, clearing the tunnels created by the Japanese as well as the fortifications built by the Spanish and Americans before them.[9] For his actions to rescue the wounded paratrooper and leadership in repelling the Japanese counter attack Tony Lopez received the Bronze Star.[10]

In late March of 1945, the 503rd was sent to the island of Negros in the Philippines; the men were welcomed by some of the most grueling and intense fighting of the war. Despite the fact that the capital of the island, Bacolod, was captured by the first of April, and MacArthur’s claim that the majority of the island was in American hands; Tony and his battalion continued fighting Japanese holdouts on Negros long after MacArthur claimed victory.[11] Tony’s battalion, 2nd Battalion, fought in the dense jungles of Negros for six months straight, without any rest. Tony, now a sergeant, and his men met opposition on every patrol they went on, facing a well-armed, well fed, and well entrenched enemy.

Tony had a lot of close encounters with his Japanese enemies: “We were going up the trail and we stopped,” recalled Tony. “I told the guys ‘Stop and take a break. We’re going to go on outpost,’ me and Bart went up ahead on outpost. So I took my first scouts Tommy gun, put a clip in there, pulled off the safety, and pulled the bolt back and went up.” It was not long before Tony and Bart came across a Japanese patrol, “So we saw a bunch [of Japanese] coming down the trail, about eight of them. So I told Bart ‘You stay right here, I’m gonna go up to the left and get behind that tree. When the first one gets to me, I’ll fire and as soon as I fire you get the top guys.’ So anyway, I waited for this guy to get right to me, and when he did, I put the Tommy gun right in his gut and it went ‘Click.’ So I pulled the bolt back and again, second time. By that time everyone went this way and I ran back that way. Then Bart said ‘What happened?’ and I said ‘Why didn’t you fire?’ and he said ‘You told me to wait till you shot.’” “So I went back and I gave the gun to Henson [my first scout], and I said ‘Clean that God Damn Tommy gun.’ He said ‘Why, I just cleaned it?’ and I said ‘It misfired on me.’ Now believe it or not but he [Henson] took that gun from me, pulled the bolt back, and fired about like eight rounds into the air.” This pointblank encounter with Japanese patrols was not an uncommon occurrence for Lopez and the men of the 503rd. However, before the Americans could react to their enemies, the Japanese would have already melted back into the jungle.[12]

Tony got along with the native Filipinos better than most Americans during the war since he could speak Spanish with many of the older natives. Tony cooperated with the natives a lot on Negros and even helped form a local militia with the purpose of preventing Japanese soldiers from ransacking the Filipino’s crops. Altogether, the joint American and Filipino patrols drove off the looters and even captured two Japanese soldiers.[13]

Lopez would volunteer for every patrol that he could, even if it was not his unit, and quickly gained the reputation of being a cold-blooded killer. Despite this menacing notoriety, Tony would always look out for his men. “We had a new lieutenant go on patrol with us one time. And we were going up this slope.” recollected Tony. “I kinda had a feeling they were close, so Henson and I went up and I saw footprints. So I said ‘Henson, they’re here’ and no sooner had I said that, they [the Japanese] opened up with an automatic rifle. They hit the tree I was behind and I shouted ‘Henson, you okay?’ and he didn’t answer. And the lieutenant said ‘Pull back! Pull back’ and I told him my scout’s up there and the lieutenant said ‘Your scout is dead, pull back.’ And I said ‘Lieutenant, I can’t leave my scout.’”

“So I disobeyed another order I guess, because George Pierce and I went up the side and opened up with our M1s and went up. Right where we went up there was this emplacement but they took off with the weapon. Then Henson came up from the other side and I said ‘Jesus Christ, what happened to you?’ and he said ‘When I went over the edge, I lost my Tommy gun. I could see them but I couldn’t do anything to them because they would’ve seen me.’ The lieutenant told us to pull back and call for artillery.” Seasoned soldiers like Tony knew that artillery was next to useless in the jungles of Negros because of the thick tree canopy, but the men obeyed their rookie officer.[14]

The ferocity of the fighting on Negros cannot be understated; in Tony’s unit, only one officer survived the full battle. About one third of his unit was hit by malaria and other jungle diseases. Later in the battle, Tony’s company, F Company, was tasked with taking a heavily fortified hill from the Japanese; they tried for days to take the hill but could not due to a lack of manpower. The battalion commander, “Colonel Jones[,] said ‘I’ll be there in the morning. I want a platoon to go up with me, I want to see what’s keeping you guys.’ So he came up the next morning and Calhoun comes up and said ‘Okay sir, here’s your platoon.’ There was eight of us left. [Colonel] Jones just shook his head and turned around and walked off. The next morning we had D Company there to help us out. F Company had been reduced to eight guys, that’s all we had.”[15]

The term of the battle was also staggering, Tony and his men stayed on the line for six months straight, continuously patrolling and fighting the Japanese. The tall jungle trees prevented artillery and air support from being effective and rations were often very scarce for Tony and his men. While on Negros, the men of 2nd Battalion never had a hot meal or a warm shower. Sometimes, they even shared the limited clean water supplies with their Japanese enemies; in an unwritten agreement, the Japanese would use the one clean well at night, and Tony’s unit would use the water during the day. Tony and the rest of 2nd Battalion were so isolated, that they continued to fight even after the war was over because no one told them the Japanese surrendered.[16]

On September 6, 1945, the Japanese garrison on Negros formally surrendered to Tony’s unit. They were surprised at how many Japanese soldiers there were on Negros, as they kept turning themselves in well into the night. Tony’s commander, Lt. Calhoun, told his men that there were over 8,000 surrendering Japanese soldiers that day. The Americans were also surprised at how healthy and well-fed their new prisoners were.

One day, after the war ended, Tony and a fellow paratrooper, Peebles, were in charge of guarding about thirty Japanese prisoners before they were transferred to a larger facility. “We were sitting there with nothing to do, since the war was over, so we put up a volleyball net and were horsing around. We were playing volleyball one-on-one and then Peebles said, ‘This is no fun, let’s get some of those guys to play with us.’ So we went over to the edge of the compound and shouted ‘Hey! Do you guys want to play volleyball?’ and a bunch of them [the prisoners] raised their hands.” “So we brought up three for me and three for Peebles. So we had four on each side playing volleyball. So we played volleyball for about an hour then they went back down. The next day they took them [the prisoners] to Victorias [a city on Negros with a larger compound].”[17]

Before returning home, Tony re-enlisted, and considered making a career out of the Army. Tony got home on December 22, 1945 and three months later had transferred to the 82nd Airborne Division.[18] However, during those three months, Tony married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Louise, and the couple had their first of five children.[19] With the 82nd Airborne, Tony was sent to Alaska to test out cold-weather equipment. During his time in Alaska, he even considered going to Officer Candidate School and making a career in the Army, but Mary Louise decided she had had enough of travelling around and wanted to settle in Denver. Tony remained in the reserves for two years after his re-enlistment was up.

After the Army, Tony initially had a difficult time finding work. He applied to the police academy but soon became frustrated with the constant questions about whether or not he had experience, “I went in [to the police headquarters] and I talked to the lady who was taking applications. She asked me, ‘What experience have you had?’ and I told her ‘I have a lot of military experience, I’ve been in the military for eight years and I’ve done a lot of combat duty.’ She asked ‘What experience do you have as a police officer?’ and I said ‘None, that’s why I’m applying to the police academy.’ But she kept asking me that same damned question so I finally told her ‘Lady, if you want experience, I’ve had experience killing.’ So she just looked at me and said ‘Well, I have to ask’ So I finally got up and said ‘Forget it’ and walked out.”[20]

Tony then worked as a truck driver before going to automotive school, not on the GI Bill, because, in his own words, “I was dumb. I never used it [the GI Bill].” After graduating from automotive school, Tony opened up his own garage where he worked on transmissions until he retired at the age of 65. Even after retiring, Tony continued to build transmissions out of his garage at home.[21] Tony’s wife, Mary Louise, passed away in 2014, and five years later, at the age of 94, Anthony Duane Lopez joined his wife in Logan National Cemetery. Throughout his life, Tony remained active in veterans groups all over the country, attending many 503rd reunions and connecting with many of his comrades.[22]

Footnotes ↓

[1]Anthony Lopez, "Interview with Anthony Lopez, World War II" (2009), Oral Histories, accessed May 4, 2021,https://epublications.regis.edu/cswe_oralhistories/11.

[2] “Anthony Duane Lopez (1924-2019) – Find A Grave,” Find a Grave, September 6, 2019, accessed May 4, 2021, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/202769518/anthony-duane-lopez.

[3]Anthony Lopez, "Interview with Anthony Lopez, World War II" (2009), Oral Histories, accessed May 4, 2021,https://epublications.regis.edu/cswe_oralhistories/11.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Donald E. Abbot, “A Condensed History of the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team, WWII,” The Drop Zone, July, 1997, accessed May 14, 2021, http://www.thedropzone.org/pacific/503hist.html.

[10] Anthony Lopez, "Interview with Anthony Lopez, World War II" (2009), Oral Histories, accessed May 4, 2021,https://epublications.regis.edu/cswe_oralhistories/11.

[11] “Yanks Invade Two Isles 30 Miles From Borneo,” The Denver Post (Denver, CO), April 4, 1945, accessed May 14, 2021, https://infoweb-newsbank-com.du.idm.oclc.org/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=favorite%3ADPCC%21Denver%2BPost%2BCollection%2Bwith%2BHistorical%2BArchives/decade%3A1940%211940%2B-%2B1949&sort=YMD_date%3AD&maxresults=20&f=advanced&val-base-0=Negros%20island&fld-base-0=alltext&fld-nav-1=YMD_date&val-nav-1=1940%20-%201945&docref=image%2Fv2%3A12C7581AC4BD0728%40WHNPX-17E81CCC9E938D4E%402431550-17E36B83195D885D%400&origin=image%2Fv2%3A12C7581AC4BD0728%40WHNPX-17E81CCC9E938D4E%402431550-17E36B831C53E620%403-17E36B831C53E620%40.

[12] Anthony Lopez, "Interview with Anthony Lopez, World War II" (2009), Oral Histories, accessed May 4, 2021,https://epublications.regis.edu/cswe_oralhistories/11.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid.

[19] “Anthony Duane Lopez (1924-2019) – Find A Grave,” Find a Grave, September 6, 2019, accessed May 4, 2021, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/202769518/anthony-duane-lopez.

[20] Anthony Lopez, "Interview with Anthony Lopez, World War II" (2009), Oral Histories, accessed May 4, 2021,https://epublications.regis.edu/cswe_oralhistories/11.

[21] Ibid.

[22] “Anthony Duane Lopez (1924-2019) – Find A Grave,” Find a Grave, September 6, 2019, accessed May 4, 2021, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/202769518/anthony-duane-lopez.