Title: History | Hispanics in the United States Army
Headings: 
History
Civil War
1861-1865
1850
Spanish-American War
1898
World War I
1914-1918
World War II
1939-1945
Korean War
1950-1953
Vietnam War
1959-1973
Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm
1990-1991
1950
Profiles
War Against Terrorism/Contigency Operations
2003-Present
2000

Content: Approximately 200 Puerto Rican women served in the Women’s Army Corps and served in the critical role of Code Talkers to avoid enemy intelligence. [ 3]
Korean War
1950-1953
When the Korean War broke out, Hispanic-Americans again answered the call to duty as they, their brothers, cousins, and friends had done in World War II. Many of the Hispanic Soldiers who fought in Korea were members of the all-Hispanic U.S. Army unit, the 65th Infantry Regiment, which fought in every major campaign of the war. The 65th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed "The Borinqueneers," originated from the Borinquen -- one of the native Taino indian names for the island of Puerto Rico. Many members of the 65th were direct descendants of that tribe. One of the first opportunities the regiment had to prove its combat worthiness arose on the eve of the Korean War during Operation PORTREX, one of the largest military exercises up until that point, where the regiment distinguished itself by repelling an offensive consisting of more than 32,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division and the U.S. Marine Corps, supported by the Navy and Air Force, thereby demonstrating that the regiment could hold its own against some of the best-trained forces in the U.S. military. [ 4]
On Aug. 25, 1950, two months into the Korean War, with the U.S. Army's situation in Korea deteriorating, the Department of the Army's headquarters decided to bolster the 3rd Infantry Division, and owing in part to the 65th Infantry Regiment's outstanding performance during Operation PORTREX, it was among the units selected for the combat assignment. The decision to send the regiment to Korea and attach it to the 3rd Infantry Division was a landmark change in the U.S. military's racial and ethnic policy. Fighting as a segregated unit from 1950 to 1952, the regiment participated in some of the fiercest battles of the war, and its toughness, courage and loyalty earned the admiration of many who had previously harbored reservations about Puerto Rican Soldiers based on lack of previous fighting experience and negative stereotypes, including Brig. Gen. William W. Harris, whose experience eventually led him to regard the regiment as "the best damn Soldiers that I had ever seen." [