Dave Pena when he worked for WKM as a Machinist.  He invented a tool that made the task

                                  It was designed for easier to perform and more efficient.  March 1997

 

                                     

I think dave supports the Bush Cheney ticket

 

                                           

 

                          Dave & Wife Lidia at New Years Party

 

                     

Dave's Corner Room

 

Dave & his trusty M-1 Carbine and .45

 

             

Dave Jr. & his sniper rifle

 

              

Dave Jr. and another one for the X-ring.

 

                            

Dave Jr.'s Chief spotter

 

 

After boot camp and ITR I was assigned to my mos (1811) basic tank crewman.  To be a tanker was a childhood dream of mine come true since I was about 5 or 6 yrs. old.  I did two tours in tanks.  First in gun tanks with "bravo" company/3rd. Tank Bn.  I was a gunner on "bravo-one-five" in the first plt.  Then I did a tour in flame tanks with "H&S" Company (flames) 1st. Tank Bn.  First time I took out a flame tank to fire I knew I was home.  I loved those fire breathing iron monsters and it was there I got my first tank and crew.  Towards the end of my tour I was doing instructor duty with the little tank school there at the Las Flores flame Tank Park.  My Platoon Leader and then company commander would entrust me to give lectures on the flame tank in Spanish for visiting officers and men from Central and South America and then put on a live fire demonstration.  I was also entrusted with the rifle and pistol detail everytime we all had to qualify.  Towards the end of my tour I had by then taken over one of the Hq. Tanks (yankee-five-one) as an instrutor at the little tank school at the Flame Tank Park at Las Flores in Camp Pendleton.  I would take the students and put them through their paces on the stuff they had studied in the class rooms.  Like most of us I made Corporal E-4 during my four years in the corps and got out with most of the members of Platoon 234 and joined the civilian work force.  I took leave about a month before my enlistment was up and went to Huntsville, Texas to make my applications and take my tests to be a security officer with the Texas Dept. of Corrections.  I worked there for about a year and a half (at one of the prison farms outside of Houston) and quit to go work for a major manufacturing company (WKM valves) as a machinist.  I married a local girl in Dec. of 1966 and my son (Dave jr.) was born in Dec. of 1967.  my wife and I were divorced when my son was about 8 yrs. old and I got custody of him and raised him by myself since then.  In 1986 at our 25th. (hometown) Brownsville High School reunion I got re-acquainted with a beautiful lady I had known since the first grade and all through school.  We had not seen each other since graduation night in May of 1961.  We had lost track of each other when I left for the Corps shortly thereafter.  My son was my best man at our wedding in Dec. of 1986. 

 

I worked at WKM for 32 years as a machinist and loved my work.  I took an early medical retirement (due to rheumatoid arthritis) in 1997 at 55 years of age having qualified for the 55/30 retirement clause after fighting the disease for several years.  My wife retired from the Houston Metropolitan Transit authority as a secretary in 2002.  We are now enjoying our golden years, traveling and seeing as much of this beautiful country of ours as we can and enjoying the fruits of all our years of labor.  We are expecting our first grandchild this August 2005 the Good Lord willing.  Life is good and God has been  good to us as well.

 

           

David & Lidia Pena, Texas Mini Reunion

New Braunfels, February 2005

 

             

David Jr, Lilianna & Dave     

 

David Jr., Iris, Lilianna & David

 

Lidia & Lilianna