A Short but Meaningful Life
By Chaye Gutierrez
Rudolph Valentio Garcia
February 15, 1925-October 19, 1959
Rudy and Rachel Garcia with friends (right, second row). Retrieved from Gutierrez family photos.
My Great Grandfather, Rudolph (Rudy) Garcia, was born February 15, 1925 to Joseph and Lucia Garcia in Denver, Colorado.[1] Throughout his early childhood, he lived in Adams, Colorado with his younger brother, Robert (Bob), both of his parents, his Uncle Charles Cordillo, his Aunt Ida Cordillo, Cousins Peter and Patsy Cordillo, and Grandmother Theresa Cordillo. Rudy’s parents, Joseph and Lucia, were married when Joseph was 23 and Lucia was 17. He worked as a laborer and she worked as a homemaker. Neither of Rudy’s parents attended school, but both could read and write—Lucia, in both English and Italian as a first-generation American. They ensured that Rudy and Bob attended primary and secondary schooling.[2] It was at school that Rudy met Rachel Garcia (born Rachel Mares in 1925) in 1939. As schoolchildren, Rudy “chased” Rachel until they were 17, when “she finally relented.”[3]
At age 17, just after finishing school, Rudy enlisted in the United States Naval Reserves as a Torpedoman’s Mate on February 13, 1943.[4] While he did not enlist in the active duty Navy, almost the entirety of the U.S. Naval Reserve was called up for active duty throughout World War II. While at the start of the war the U.S. Navy consisted of only 383,150 servicemen, its membership reached its peak during the same war with 3,405,525 men eventually fighting in the Navy—most of them reservists.[5]
Rudy’s first steps in the Naval Reserves were to attend the proper schools to be trained and prepared for his first tour on a submarine. First, he attended Naval Training School in Farragut, Idaho and then Fleet Service School in Norfolk, Virginia in 1943. Following that training, he continued his education in the Navy with Basic Enlisted Submarine School in New London, CT. Finally, he was assigned to the USS Puffer (SS-268) in the fall of 1943. [6] The USS Puffer got her start in the war in September 1943 after departing from Fremantle, Australia, when the submarine and her crew aimed to intercept a Japanese convoy. On this first patrol, the USS Puffer sunk one ship, damaged another, and took on three hits. A similar patrol took place again in October 1943. In December 1943, the USS Puffer sank the Japanese boat, Teiko Maru and the Japanese destroyer Fuyo.[7] When the submarine returned to Fremantle to re-stock supplies, it was time for Rudy’s first leave and he had big plans.
Garcia and crew aboard the USS Puffer (Retrieved from Gutierrez family photos)
Greeting card sent from a trainee to his mother from the Naval Training Station in Farragut. Retrieved from dobrinkman.net/Lowndes/Farragut.htm
A guide from the Naval Training Station in Farragut, Idaho. Retrieved from www.gjenvick.com/military/navyarchives/brochures/usntc/1940s-usntc-farragutidaho.html
After months at war, a handful of near-death battles, and the challenges that come with life in the war, Garcia knew exactly how he wanted to spend his short leave back in Denver: marrying his dream girl. On December 30, 1943, Rachel and Rudy made their vows, knowing that their marriage would be riddled with struggle and heartache as Rudy had to return to the war just days after their nuptials.[8]
Upon his return to the U.S. Naval base in Fremantle Australia, Garcia boarded a new submarine, the USS Narwhal (SS-167). From January 1944 to June 1944, the Narwhal was largely responsible for carrying men and supplies between Fremantle and the Alusan Bay. However, the crew was faced with action on the evening of June 13, 1944. While submerged for reconnaissance around an enemy fuel depot, the Narwhal ended up in a nine-and-a-half-hour battle with enemy boats and fled a chase by an enemy submarine. From August 1944 to April 1945, the Narwhal managed to avoid other serious battles as the crew continued to deliver men and supplies between Fremantle and several locations throughout the Pacific Ocean.[9] The Narwhal was decommissioned in April 1945, when Rudy was transferred to the USS Cochino (SS-345) before being honorably discharged on November 15, 1945.[10]
Garcia returned home to have four children with Rachel: Rudolph, Rebecca, Anita and James. Just a decade after surviving the war and upon beginning his family, Rudy was involved in a fatal car accident on October 19, 1959. The officer who reported to the scene of the crash was Carl Duval, the husband to Patsy Cordillo—Rudy’s cousin who lived with him throughout childhood.[11] He was interred at Fort Logan National Cemetery on October 23, 1959, where Rachel would join him 52 years later after becoming a grandmother to seventeen, great-grandmother to twenty-eight, and great-great-great grandmother to three.[12]
Footnotes ↓
[1] “Garcia Family Tree,” database, Ancestry.com. Accessed July 6, 2018. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/family-tree/person/tree/74170413/person/36410824432/facts, entry for Rudolph Valentino Garcia.
[2] “1930 United States Federal Census,” database, Ancestry.com. Accessed July 6, 2018. Entry for Rudolph Valentino Garcia, Lower Clear Creek, Adams, Colorado, pg. 8b.
[3] Rebecca Gutierrez, “Rudy Garcia Interview,” interview by author, July 22, 2018. DU VLP.
[4] “U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962,” database, Ancestry.com. Accessed July 5, 2018. Entry for Rudolph Garcia. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/interactive/2590/40479_2421401697_0514-02234/2036500?backurl=https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/family-tree/person/tree/74170413/person/36410824432/facts/citation/1000197973085/edit/record
[5] “About the U.S. Navy Reserve Mission,” College Education Opportunities in the Navy – Navy.com, accessed June 20, 2018. https://www.navy.com/who-we-are/about-navy-reserve.
[6] Rebecca Gutierrez, “Rudy Garcia Interview,” interview by author, July 22, 2018. DU VLP.
[7] Robert Cressman, “Chapter V: 1943,” in The Official Chronology of the US Navy in World War II (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999).
[8] Rebecca Gutierrez, “Rudy Garcia Interview,” interview by author, July 22, 2018. DU VLP.
[9] S.A. Mills, Stranded in the Phillippines (Annapolis, MD: Naval Press Institute, 2009).
[10] Rebecca Gutierrez, “Rudy Garcia Interview,” interview by author, July 22, 2018. DU VLP.
[11] Rebecca Gutierrez, “Rudy Garcia Interview,” interview by author, July 22, 2018. DU VLP.
[12] Rebecca Gutierrez, “Rudy Garcia Interview,” interview by author, July 22, 2018. DU VLP.
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