Alfred Arrieta of Seal Beach hit the century mark last week and is looking forward to paying tribute to his fellow servicemen on Memorial Day.
It was Christmas Eve 1944 and Alfred Arrieta was among a nine-member crew aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress, providing support to ground troops in the French countryside during the Battle of the Bulge, one of the bloodiest battles in World War II.
“I feel fortunate. I made it through the Great Depression, the 20th century and World War II,” Arrieta said recently at his home in Seal Beach as he sat next to his wife, Frances. “I’m here, very grateful and proud of my country.” But they had money. There were several thousand francs stuffed in their escape kits provided by the U.S. Air Force to troops who found themselves in foreign territory.
Arrieta worked odd jobs to provide for his family but then in 1965 he decided to become a TV repairman. He took night classes twice a week for a year after his regular workday. He said he can still see his father, Aparicio, walking down the road at the end of the day after working at a local railroad company. Arrieta would run to meet him and eat the burrito or whatever was left in his father’s lunchbox, only now realizing that his father had saved the food just for him.Alfred Arrieta and his wife, Frances Arrieta, at their Seal Beach home.
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