Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 2454 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature an interview with Ivo Alvarez about his service as a Marine in Vietnam and a police officer in Miami, Florida.

In 1954, when he was ten years old, Ivo Alvarez’s family pulled up stakes in Cuba and relocated to Miami. When Ivo graduated from high school in Miami, he joined the U.S. Marines because as he said, he watched too many John Wayne movies. He real motivation for enlisting was to realize a hope of going back to fight in Cuba to help free his home country from the clutches of communism. Those hopes and plans did not work out. He was sent to Vietnam where he arrived in late 1965.

Ivo served in Vietnam as a member of the famous Utter’s Battalion. His service was as a frontline infantryman. A book about the battalion gives a good idea about the challenges Ivo faced in country. A portion of the book description includes: “After paving the way in Qui Nhon for the arrival of more American military, 2/7 was assigned to Chu Lai, where the battalion fought its most bitter, deadly battles. With the scalding ring of truth, Lee captures the conditions of the bone-weary 2/7 Marines as they slogged through jungles and spent night after night in dreary, rain-filled foxholes.”

After his hitch in the Marines was over, Ivo went home and became a member of the Miami Police Force. In his twenty plus years in the Department he rose to the rank of Major. He survived the perilous times during the Liberty City race riots of 1980. Ivo said his experiences as a Marine infantryman in Vietnam served him well in the riots.

Ivo Alvarez is another tremendous representative of the great Vietnam Veteran Generation.

Listen to episode 2454 and discover more about the service of Ivo Alvarez as a Marine in Vietnam and a police officer in Miami, Florida.

Recommended Reading

Buy Now