Sotero Soto, the great-grandson of
an Apache Indian, was a U.S. Army
combat engineer at the peak of
the Korean War. He advanced from
private to sergeant first class in the
space of 14 months.
Often forgotten in the history of “the
forgotten war” is that an estimated
10,000 Native Americans served
in Korea. The combat engineers
were always in the thick of it. They
bulldozed roads; built bridges; used
logs and sandbags to construct
bunkers and planted land mines in
barbed-wire barriers.
Soto’s inventiveness impressed
his superiors. He created napalm
grenades from the cardboard tubes
mortars arrived in. “Whatever it
takes” was Soto’s motto. He has three
campaign stars on his Korean Service
ribbon.