Monday, April 9, 2018

Medal of Honor Winner Hector A. Cafferata Jr.


From "America's Rifle: The M1 Garand"




























In case above link breaks:







Narrator: The M1 was now facing weapons with an even greater capacity and higher rate of fire. The M1 had changed the course of battle immeasurable times in World War II but in the Korean War, there is no story more revealing of the M1's defensive power than that of Hector Cafferata whose actions earned him the Medal of Honor. Hector Cafferata was at the infamous Chosin Resevoir where the [ Communist ] [ North ] Koreans and Chinese tried to overrun the [ United States ] Marines. He was with his high school friend, Kenny Benson. The two were enlisted men sent on a routine mission.


















Cafferata: The rumor was we were going to be home for Christmas. So it was kind of, oh, you know, what are we doing all of this patrolling for if we're going to be home for Christmas? And then, Benson and I were picked out to go out front. Nobody really told us how far. Didn't tell us anything.

Narrator: Hector Cafferata and Kenny Benson went out on patrol and took a position for the night.



















Cafferata: It was ice and rock.  We couldn't dig in. And those rocks, you don't like to be around the rocks because you get a lot of ricochets off the rocks.  Flying rocks. We got in our bags and try and stay warm.  You can't get into one of those mummy bags with your boots on. I must have fell asleep because I heard, I heard, and when I looked, there they were. Well, I had my rifle and I popped the first six or eight, whatever there was. And they were maybe thirty-five feet away. I shot them. Bens [ Benson ] got up and he's looking for his ... and I say, "What are you doing?" He's putting his boots on and I say, "[Forget] the boots," I said. I said, "start shooting!" So by then I was on my third clip in a point blank range. I mean, you can't miss. I say, "Bens, we got to fall back." Cause in that rock pile, you're going to be getting killed with flying rocks!

Narrator: Hector Cafferata left his boots behind in the snow as he and his partner fell back to safer cover.










Cafferata: We started pulling back. Bens and I were crawling.  Bens was right behind me.  Right behind his right foot a grenade comes in and lands behind me and I guess it got away from him and it shattered him with rocks and whatever and he was kind of shook up. And I said, "We gotta keep going." Well, Bens he can't shoot, he can't see. Then we come to the wash. And there, in the wash, are three guys. And I knew them, they were in our squad. I figured we came quite a ways if we hit them. And they were all wounded. And one guy I think was dead.  And I turned around and started shooting and kept shooting. And Bens was hurt, pretty bad. And there was a rifle there. I gave it to him and said, "Here, keep this loaded because I need it.  Cause I fired eight rounds you know, point blank range, and drop eight guys. I mean, I don't know what they were thinking. But I actually had them walk right up to me. What are you going to do? So you shoot them. And they throw grenades. I used to take my trenching knife  I had in my hand and I would flip a grenade with it.


Narrator: The firefight lasted seven to eight hours but Hector Cafferata fired on hundreds of enemy. His rifle was in such heavy use that the overheated barrel set the upper handguard on fire several times.
Cafferata: To put it off with the snow cool the gun down a little bit. Shoot it you know another 20 rounds and she'd be warming up again but I did an awful lot of shooting. You ever hunt ducks? OK,  you know how ducks are?  You can't fight them off when they want to come in and that's how they [ Communists ] were you know they just come I don't know how many times I fired six, seven rounds and dropped six, seven guys. It's awful.

Narrator: Wounded in action, Hector Cafferata was eventually evacuated along with Kenny Benson but there was no doubt they held the line.











Cafferata: I got letters from some of the boys who were out there after the battle and were counting bodies and they told me that I really stacked  them up.  And they give me some figures, but I'm not  mention them because I don't like to sound like I'm bragging and I don't want to brag.

















Narrator: The officer who nominated Cafferata for the Medal of Honor was quoted as saying    that he was personally convinced that Hector accounted for over 100 of the enemy that night. Marines who tried to count the dead bodies in front of Hector's position the next day, estimated the total as high as 200.  It is clear that Cafferata ans his M1 single handedly kept the Marine position from being over run.






Cafferata: I was at work and my mother  come over and she says "I got a telegram for you."  Well, she had read it. So I read the telegram & it says that I have to report to Washington  in the Rose Garden & the president is going to present me with the Medal of Honor.  So I call Marine Corps HQ and "Sarge," I says, "I got a letter that says the President is going to give me the Medal of Honor " I said, "But I have no time " I says, "So, can't you mail it to me?" Jesus Christ, what a dumb thing to do. You know. They weren't happy!

Newsreel: President    Truman awards the nation's highest honor to three Marine Corps heroes of the valiant Chosun Reservoir fighting in Korea















Narrator: Hecro Cafferata ultimately did make that trip to the White House.


Cafferata: You know, the president, he was a little guy. And he read my citation & I thought "Geez, I wonder who that was?" You know? Now he's standing in front of me he's got to put it around my neck. I'm standing rigid at attention , first time I ever did it.   But anyway, he can't get his arms around me because of my shoulders and my height.  So now I come down, you know I moved the body around so I could come down and now he's standing on my spit shined shoes! He put scuff marks in them. You know that fine leather we had then? Finally gets it around my neck you know and all that jazz. That little sucker. He ruined em! He did!















Narrator: The M1 Garrand    was officially replaced by its select fire cousin, the M14  in 1959.






















Posted by adagioforstrings at 11:02:00 AM
Labels: , , ,

No comments :

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )