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What's in a name? If Vila, it's strength, life and loyalty

What's in a name? If Vila, it's strength, life and loyalty. A West Tampa area park is set to take on the family name.

By SARA KENNEDY
Published February 18, 2005

WEST TAMPA - As her two eldest sons prepared to ship out with the Marine Corps to face the dangers of World War II, Carmen Vila locked herself in a bathroom and made a vow to God: I will never eat another crumb of bread if you protect my sons from harm.

Though it was difficult for a Latin woman to spurn her daily helpings of cottony Cuban bread, she kept her promise as her sons waded ashore to gunfire at Guadalcanal in the South Pacific.

She continued to keep her promise as her five younger sons joined military units, freeing starved Allied prisoners of war in Germany, ducking bullets in a frozen Korean foxhole or helicoptering through flak in Vietnam.

Carmen did not taste a single crust of bread from the day her eldest sons left in 1942 until her death 46 years later.

"She used to pray every day ... so we could come back," said Joe Vila, 81, her oldest son.

All of her sons returned safely, some nursing serious injuries from wars across the globe. They live across the Tampa Bay area, including West Tampa, Carrollwood and Sun City Center.

To honor the brothers' valor, the city is renaming a West Tampa area park after them.

City Council member Mary Alvarez, who represents the neighborhood, sponsored an ordinance to rename West Pines Park and Playground, at 700 N Armenia Ave., the Vila Brothers Park. The council approved the change Feb. 3 and was expected to finalize it Thursday. Mayor Pam Iorio will likely sign it into law.

"I think it's important for the West Tampa community be able to honor a family that had seven brothers that went to war, and they came back alive and well, and that they were so dedicated to the service of their country," Alvarez said.

Future generations will benefit from the civic example the Vilas have set, she said. The city has not set a date for the renaming ceremony.

The Vila brothers collectively served in three branches of the military from 1942 to 2003, a span of 61 years with only a few brief interruptions. They have been showered with Purple Hearts, Navy Crosses, ribbons and medals.

Their mother, born in Key West, was a lifelong homemaker. Their father, Wilfredo, a native of Cuba, worked as a cigar roller and in a bakery.

The couple had 14 children - seven boys and seven girls, 12 of whom are still alive. They grew up in a three-bedroom house in West Tampa, where some of the children slept three to a bed before the sons went off to war.

Wilfredo died in 1975; Carmen in 1988.

Before Carmen gave up eating Cuban bread, she enjoyed it crisp and fragrantly hot. Because her husband worked nights at a bakery, he would bring home a fresh loaf every morning. They enjoyed it with a little butter or dipped in rich Cuban coffee.

"Bread was her favorite thing," daughter Aleida Sais, 75, of Tampa said.

Some of the Vila brothers were among a select group of veterans invited to a news conference last week by retired Army Lt. Gen. Ed Soyster, executive director of the World War II 60th Anniversary Committee. He announced that Tampa would co-host the first of six events across the United States to honor aging veterans and commemorate the end of World War II.

Free and open to the public, the event starts at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Tampa Convention Center. The ceremony will honor those who never returned to their mothers as well as those who came home safely.

There was probably no happier or grateful woman than Carmen Vila when her sons rejoined the family in Tampa, her family said. She would have been thrilled to have her sons honored in her own neighborhood park.

Said son Hector Vila, 73: "This was quite an accomplishment and tribute to our family, our country, our city and the neighborhood of West Tampa."

Joe Vila, 81, of West Tampa was so enraged by Japan's 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Marine Corps three weeks later. He was among Allied amphibious troops who invaded Guadalcanal in the South Pacific in 1942. During the invasion, he was injured by a bomb explosion that sent him to the hospital for a year. He suffered spinal injuries, a leg wound and a dislocated right shoulder. He still has a piece of shrapnel in his left hand. He got a medical discharge in 1944, along with a Purple Heart, and worked as a civilian at MacDill Air Force Base for 36 years.

Willie Vila, 80, of West Tampa enlisted in the Marine Corps with Joe and fought in Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Australia, Palau Islands, New Caledonia and Okinawa, where he was hit with a mortar shell and hospitalized for weeks with eye damage and a chest wound before he could finish his tour of duty in China. "Our motto had to be: Kill or be killed," he wrote about fighting the Japanese. He was honored with three Purple Hearts, an equivalent decoration from the French and the Navy Cross. After he was discharged in 1946, he worked as a diesel mechanic for General Motors.

Wilfredo Jr., 78, of Sun City Center was drafted into the Army in 1944 and sent to Europe. He was assigned to rescue Allied POWs from German camps. "These prisoners had been starved, beaten and abused, and it was rewarding to me each time we could save one," he wrote later. In Berlin, he guarded the office of the military governor and served on the honor guard for Gen. Lucius D. Clay, who later directed the Berlin Airlift. Discharged in 1946, Vila worked for 43 years as a truck driver, receiving clerk and warehouse supervisor for what was then called Tampa Paper Co.

Hector Vila, 73, of West Tampa was with the Marine Corps Reserve and fought in Korea in 1951 as an assistant machine gunner and ammunition carrier. When his company faced horrendous fire along the front line, he tried to dig a foxhole but found the ground frozen solid. "I lost my platoon and I felt scared, cold, and it seemed to me I was in hell," he wrote later. He won the Korean Service Medal and star, marksmanship badge and good conduct medals. When his military service ended in 1958, he worked for 28 years as a foreman at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Tampa and then ran unsuccessfully twice for West Tampa state representative.

Robert Vila, 72, of Carrollwood enlisted in the Navy in 1952 and served on the battleship USS Iowa, positioned off Korea to lob shells at the enemy on land. Robert's older brother Hector watched from land as the ship's guns hammered his adversaries. From 1953-55, Robert shipped out on goodwill missions to Scotland, Norway, Denmark, Cuba, Turkey, England, Italy and France. He was awarded ribbons from the United Nations, the Korean Service Medal and two stars. After returning to civilian life in 1956, he worked for 35 years as a brewer for Anheuser-Busch Co. in Tampa.

Denio Vila, 67, of Land O'Lakes was drafted into the Army in 1960 and trained as a medical specialist at Fort Hood, Texas. His unit stood ready to aid injured soldiers anywhere in the world. When his duty ended in 1962, he led classes in combat medical training for the Army Reserve at Tampa's Drew Field (now Tampa International Airport). He won awards for rifle sharpshooting and good conduct. He worked as a buyer for Reynolds Aluminum for 33 years.

Tony Vila, 61, of Carrollwood enlisted in the Navy in 1962 and served aboard the USS Vesole, which helped in the blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Later, he worked as a hospital corpsman and a Spanish translator and fought communist insurgents in Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Aruba. In 1964, he was aboard the USS Long Beach, a nuclear-powered light cruiser, when it traveled more than 30,000 miles in just 58 days. Later, he was a medic with a Marine helicopter unit in Vietnam. As a member of the Naval Reserve, he served during Desert Storm and Desert Shield in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iraq. He earned 15 medals and ribbons before his discharge in 2003. He works as a letter carrier in Seminole and growth management coordinator for the U.S. Postal Service.

Source: Interviews and written biographical material from the Vilas.

[Last modified February 17, 2005, 10:50:08]