"It gives me a good feeling," says the Sunnyvale resident, who was among nine veterans to earn their honorary diplomas at a Sept. 3 ceremony. "It's too bad the ones who deserve it are not around for this."

The COE launched its Operation Graduate program last November to honor veterans and Japanese-Americans who were unable to finish high school due to military service or internment during World War II and the Korean War.

Salgado is a veteran of both wars. He left high school in 1945—his freshman year—and enlisted in the Navy in Santa Ana, Calif. The Navy eventually found out he was underage but didn't discharge him.

"They needed a lot of guys," Salgado recalls. "There was a shortage because everything was winding down."

The Navy was a good career for young, single men, Salgado says. "With married guys, their tears get in their gun sights."

During WWII, Salgado served on a ship that patrolled the South Atlantic. He recalls that many of his shipmates never developed their sea legs. "A lot of guys couldn't cut it at sea. If you get seasick, you're excess baggage."

The hurricanes they encountered didn't help matters. "We were in the eye of one, and it looked like a piece of glass," Salgado says. "The water was dark and the skies were black. You'd hear the ship crack like it was a toothpick."

His ship survived man-made threats as well as natural disasters. Toward the end of his tour of duty, Salgado participated in the capture of a German U-boat that was headed for Japan. He says the Navy forbade him and the rest of the crew to discuss the incident with anyone. "If you went on liberty and started boozing it up and talking about it, someone would tap you on the shoulder."

Salgado's inability to talk about what he'd seen and done as a Navy seaman, both in WWII and Korea, led to a long-term battle with post-traumatic stress syndrome. After many years, he is facing his demons and receiving treatment at the VA hospital in Menlo Park. But Salgado still has some guilt about making it home in one piece when some of his buddies didn't.

"It's not fair for some to put out and the rest to lay around," he says. "We all benefited from what those guys did."

Despite his inner turmoil, Salgado made a good life for himself after being discharged in 1953. He earned his GED and built up a successful contracting business. In 1956 he and his second wife, Josefina, took advantage of the GI Bill and bought a house in Sunnyvale. They moved in with seven children and no furniture between them. Now they're packing up 37 years of memories and moving to the Sacramento area, a rural community similar to what Sunnyvale was like when they first moved here.

As painful as some of his wartime memories are, Salgado wants to share them to honor those he served with. "Just don't let people forget the hell we went through," he admonishes.