was called to active duty in the army, as the US had entered World War II. He was placed in command of a company of infantry. Later, he commanded a company of combat engineers before being transferred to the medical corps. He was stationed in Europe, and eventually rose to the rank of major. He earned the Bronze Star Medal, the European African Middle Eastern Medal with six bronze stars, and the World War II Victory Medal. While in Italy, he met and fell in love with Wanda Fusillo of Naples, whom he married in 1945. Life after the war In 1945, with the war over, Dr. García returned to Southern Texas with his wife Wanda, settling in Corpus Christi. Their first child, Daisy Wanda, was born in 1946. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) had been formed in the city seven years previously by Hispanic veterans to defend the rights of Hispanic-American citizens. García opened a private medical practice with his brother José Antonio; they treated all patients regardless of their ability to pay. In 1947, García was elected president of the local chapter of LULAC. In the same year, he was hospitalized with life-threatening acute nephritis. While recuperating, he heard the local superintendent of the school district talking about the racial segregation in his district. Southern states had established a binary system, classifying all people as mainly either black or white, or Hispanic in some states like Texas, and segregating public facilities by race. At that moment, he made a private oath that, if he recovered, he would dedicate his life to gaining the equality of his people. Founding of AGIF After being discharged from the hospital, García began helping other Mexican-American veterans file claims with the Veteran's Administration (VA). He helped veterans to obtain services from the VA since the administration was slow to respond to the Hispanic-American veterans' needs. In 1948, he began an investigation of conditions for migrant laborers in Mathis, Texas. He found the impoverished workers to be ill-clothed, malnourished, and diseased from lack of basic sanitation. On March 26 of the same year, he called a meeting to address the concerns of Mexican-American veterans. This meeting was a catalyst for developing AGIF, which soon had chapters in 40 Texas cities. It became the primary vehicle by which Mexican-American veterans expressed their discontent with the official discrimination against them and asserted their