Tanilo Sandoval stands in the Rock Island National Cemetery at the graves of his brothers Frank Sandoval and Joe Sandoval.
This story was written by Marc Wilson for the Quad City Times in November 2010 for Veterans Day. We felt it was a fine story to share this Memorial Day weekend.
Note: Veterans Day is distinct from Memorial Day, a U.S. public holiday in May. Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day honors those who died while in military service.
Of death and heroes, Tanilo Sandoval is an expert.
On a crisp and sunny autumn day, after a prairie wind storm had blown most of the brightly colored leaves from the towering oaks and elms, Tanilo guided me through the 25,000 graves at the U.S. military cemetery on Arsenal Island.
The vastness of the white markers could overwhelm, but Tanilo knows where the bodies are buried. He’s been a regular here for more than 60 years. Many times, he’s heard taps played. Many times he’s walked the vast graveyard alone, silently visiting his fallen brothers. Many times tears have trickled down his long, white beard.
Three of his brothers are buried here, so are four of his childhood friends. Two other gravestones serve as memorials for friends whose bodies never were found after they were killed in combat. Memories haunt his soul.
When President Woodrow Wilson proposed the first Armistice Day, he said, “…reflections will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service… .”
Congress formally made Armistice Day a federal holiday in 1938, and in 1954 changed the name to Veterans Day.
We can honor veterans who paid the ultimate sacrifice. We can bury them with high tributes, erect monuments and declare holidays in their memory. But we cannot talk to them.
Their story is left to be told by their their friends, sisters and brothers. That’s why I asked Tanilo to guide me through the white grave markers on Arsenal Island.
Tanilo is from
Hero Street U.S.A. — the single block in America that suffered the most combat deaths in World War II and Korea. From some 35 poor homes in Silvis, Ill., more than 80 men went to war. Six – including two of Tanilo’s brothers – died in World War II. Two more of Tanilo’s friends from the same street died in Korea.
Tanilo, now 84, is one of the last survivors who knew all eight of the heroes. He and all five of his brothers served in the U.S. Army. Two died in combat, a third was wounded in Korea and died shortly after returning home. His father, Eduvigues — a Mexican refugee who never gained American citizenship — died on Veterans Day in 1967.
Our first stop was Joe Gomez’s grave, in the cemetery’s Korean War section. Then we walked in silence to the southern edge of the cemetery, on a knoll overlooking the tree-lined Mississippi River. Tanilo’s brothers Joe and Frank rest side-by-side in the row nearest the river. Tanilo paused a moment between his brothers’ graves and closed his eyes.
Then he pointed three graves away in the same row as his brothers to the grave marked Claro Solis (Soliz). Then Tanilo led me to Tony Pompa’s grave, just a few rows to the north. Then we walked east between the rows of graves to Peter Masias’ final resting place.
We then walked silently up a slight grade a hundred yards or so to the area designated for memorial markers for slain veterans whose bodies were never recovered. Tanilo pointed out Johnny Munos’ marker, then Willie Sandoval’s.
We walked to the graves of two Medal of Honor winners, and to another pair of brothers buried side by side. Tanilo showed me the side-by-side graves of two men from Illinois who were killed on the same day in February 1948 while fighting in the U.S. Army’s 30th Infantry Division. He pointed to the graves of Buffalo Soldiers in the Civil War section of the cemetery. We visited the monument of the Unknown Soldiers. He is too much of an expert about sad things.
Tanilo has been visiting the cemetery regularly since 1947, when his brothers were buried. He regularly drove his parents — Mexican citizens who never learned to drive or speak fluent English — to the cemetery to place flowers on their sons’ graves until his father died in 1967, and his mother, Angelina, died in 1984.
“Now the duty of delivering flowers to my brothers is mine alone,” Tanilo said as he sat on a bench overlooking the endless sea of white markers.
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2020: The Rock Island Arsenal invites families and the Quad-City community to honor the nation’s fallen and pay respects to those laid to rest at the Rock Island National Cemetery by placing flags or flowers on grave sites Saturday, May 23, 2020 through Monday, May 25, 2020, 8A-8P.
Through its fiscal sponsor the Moline Foundation, the Hero Street documentary film series received partial funding from the Regional Development Authority (RDA), Illinois Arts Council, the Illinois Humanities, Humanities Iowa, National Endowment for the Humanities, Quad City Arts Dollars—provided by Illinois Arts Council Agency, Hubbell-Waterman Foundation and John Deere, the Quad Cities Community Foundation, LULAC Iowa, Mexican American Veterans Association, the City of Silvis, and individual contributors. The project also received a production grant from the Moline Foundation. The views and opinions expressed by these films do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.
Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated independent film production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.
To PRE-ORDER the DVD for Riding the Rails to Hero Street (release date late March 2020) or A Bridge too Far from Hero Street (release date April 2020) or Fourth Wall Films' Emmy-nominated and award-winning film Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT), CLICK HERE!
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