The Latin jazz was essentially American big band swing-jazz fused with Afro-Hispanic music — mambo and bolero, in particular.
[11] In that same year, his orchestra members were composed entirely of Mexican Americans, according to an article in the Prensa, a San Antonio Spanish language newspaper.
As a member of the Army Mountain Infantry regiment, Carreón was a Browning automatic rifleman in the 1943 U.S. assault on and capture of Japanese occupied Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands.
Carreón wore the Asiatic-Pacific and American Defense ribbons, one campaign star, and was awarded the Expert Infantryman Badge.
They had four children: (i) Daniel Thomas Carreon (1950–2013) survived by wife Judy Harward and 8 children, Jennifer, Kristen, Daniel, John Paul, Rebecca, Bethany, Sarah and Michaela; (ii) Phyllis Carreon (born 1955), who was first married to Vincent Frank Cesare and is currently married to Raymond Alan Taie since 1982 with daughter Kelly Kristine (Pfeiffer); (iii) Patrick Anthony Carreon (born 1958) currently married to Tamerin Kelly with daughter Mary Katherine, and (iv) Yvonne Susanne Carreon (born 1960), married to Karl Alan Schoneman, divorced in 2006 with 4 children Ted, Alexandria, Nicola and Phillip.