Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
SMITH, WILSON
Rank and organization: Corporal, Battery H, 3d New York Light Artillery. Place and date: At Washington, N.C., 6 September 1862. Entered service at: Madison, N.Y. Birth: Madison, N.Y. Date of issue: 24 April 1896. Citation: Took command of a gun (the lieutenant in charge having disappeared) and fired the same so rapidly and effectively that the enemy was repulsed, although for a time a hand_to_hand conflict was had over the gun.
*MARTINEZ, BENITO
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company A, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Satae-ri Korea, 6 September 1952. Entered service at: Fort Hancock, Tex. Born: 21 March 1931, Fort Hancock, Tex. G.O. No.: 96, 29 December 1953. Citation. Cpl. Martinez, a machine gunner with Company A, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. While manning a listening post forward of the main line of resistance, his position was attacked by a hostile force of reinforced company strength. In the bitter fighting which ensued, the enemy infiltrated the defense perimeter and, realizing that encirclement was imminent, Cpl. Martinez elected to remain at his post in an attempt to stem the onslaught. In a daring defense, he raked the attacking troops with crippling fire, inflicting numerous casualties. Although contacted by sound power phone several times, he insisted that no attempt be made to rescue him because of the danger involved. Soon thereafter, the hostile forces rushed the emplacement, forcing him to make a limited withdrawal with only an automatic rifle and pistol to defend himself. After a courageous 6-hour stand and shortly before dawn, he called in for the last time, stating that the enemy was converging on his position His magnificent stand enabled friendly elements to reorganize, attack, and regain the key terrain. Cpl. Martinez' incredible valor and supreme sacrifice reflect lasting glory upon himself and are in keeping with the honored traditions of the military service.
*DAVIS, RODNEY MAXWELL
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps, Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Quang Nam Province, Republic of Vietnam, 6 September 1967. Entered service at: Macon, Ga. Born: 7 April 1942, Macon, Ga. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the right guide of the 2d Platoon, Company B, in action against enemy forces. Elements of the 2d Platoon were pinned down by a numerically superior force of attacking North Vietnamese Army Regulars. Remnants of the platoon were located in a trench line where Sgt. Davis was directing the fire of his men in an attempt to repel the enemy attack. Disregarding the enemy hand grenades and high volume of small arms and mortar fire, Sgt. Davis moved from man to man shouting words of encouragement to each of them while firing and throwing grenades at the onrushing enemy. When an enemy grenade landed in the trench in the midst of his men, Sgt. Davis, realizing the gravity of the situation, and in a final valiant act of complete self-sacrifice, instantly threw himself upon the grenade, absorbing with his body the full and terrific force of the explosion. Through his extraordinary initiative and inspiring valor in the face of almost certain death, Sgt. Davis saved his comrades from injury and possible loss of life, enabled his platoon to hold its vital position, and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
6 September
◆1492 Columbus' fleet sailed from Gomera, Canary islands.
◆1776 The Turtle, the 1st submarine invented by David Bushnell, attempted to secure a cask of gunpowder to the HMS Eagle, flagship of the British fleet, in the Bay of NY but got entangled with the Eagle’s rudder bar, lost ballast and surfaced before the charge was planted.
◆1776 Continental Congress prescribed first Marine uniform.
◆1797 William "Extra Billy" Smith, Confederacy (Confederate Army), was born.
◆1819 William Starke Rosecrans, Maj. General (Union volunteers), was born.
◆1844 Western explorer John C. Fremont arrives at the shores of the Great Salt Lake, one of the many areas he will map for the lasting benefit of a westward-moving nation.
◆1861 Union General Ulysses S. Grant's forces capture Paducah, Kentucky, in a bloodless takeover—allowing the Federals to control the mouth of the Tennessee River, and greatly assisting in the Union campaign in Tennessee in 1862.
◆1862 Stonewall Jackson occupied Frederick, Maryland.
◆1863 After months of campaigning against Battery Wagner on Morris Island in a protracted Yankee effort to capture nearby Charleston, South Carolina, a Confederate garrison finally flees the island.
◆1915 The first tank prototype was completed and given its first test drive on this day, developed by William Foster & Company for the British army. Several European nations had been working on the development of a shielded, tracked vehicle that could cross the uneven terrain of World War I trenches, but Great Britain was the first to succeed. Lightly armed with machine guns, the tanks made their first authoritative appearance at the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, when 474 British tanks managed to break through the German lines. The Allies began using the vehicles in increasing numbers throughout the rest of the war. After World War I, European nations on all sides continued to build tanks at a frantic pace, arming them with even heavier artillery and plating. This competitive stockpiling came to a lethal head on the battlefields of World War II.
◆1918 Sailors fire first of the 5 railroad batteries at Tergnier, a German rail head in the Comeigne Forest. These 14"-50 caliber guns were originally designed for battleships.
◆1943 The United States asked the Chinese Nationals to join with the Communists to present a common front to the Japanese.
◆1943 On Arundel the Japanese begin to resist American attempts to advance.
◆1944 USS Independence (CVL-22) begins use of specially trained air group for night work. First time that a fully equipped night carrier operates with fast carrier task force.
◆1944 In the advance of US 12th Army Group, US 1st Army crosses the Meuse River at several points south of Namur.
◆1944 All four carrier groups of US Task Force 38 (Admiral Mitscher), 16 aircraft carriers, begin air strikes on Japanese positions on the islands. The commander of the US 3rd Fleet, Admiral Halsey, is present on board the battleship USS New Jersey.
◆1945 U.S. troops begin returning to U.S. when Task Force 11 left Tokyo Bay for U.S.
◆1945 General Eisenhower lifts press censorship. Meanwhile, British field security troops, acting on orders of the Allied Control Commission, arrest 44 prominent Ruhr industrialists.
◆1945 Vice Admiral John S. McCain, former commander of US Task Force 58, dies of a heart attack at age 61.
◆1954 A US plane was shot down above Siberia.
◆1965 U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese forces launch Operation Pirahna on the Batangan Peninsula, 23 miles south of the Marine base at Chu Lai. This was a follow-up to Operation Starlight, which had been conducted in August. During the course of the operation, the Allied forces stormed a stronghold of the Viet Cong 1st Regiment, claiming 200 enemy dead after intense fighting.
◆1967 U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announces plans to build an electronic anti-infiltration barrier to block communist flow of arms and troops into South Vietnam from the north at the eastern end of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The "McNamara Line," as it became known, would employ state-of-the-art, high-tech listening devices to alert U.S. forces when North Vietnamese troops and supplies were moving south so that air and artillery strikes could be brought to bear on them. It was estimated that the cost of completing and maintaining the project would be more than $800 million per year. Construction on the barrier line, initially code named "Practice Nine" and later changed to "Dye Marker," began almost at once. But in the end, the concept proved impractical as the North Vietnamese just shifted their infiltration routes to other areas.
◆1976 A Soviet Air Force pilot lands his MIG-25 fighter jet in Japan and asks for asylum in the United States.
◆1997 The USS Hopper, the 354th ship in the modern naval fleet, was commissioned. The high-tech destroyer is the 2nd warship to be named after a woman. Grace Hooper (d.1992) was a computer programmer for the Navy until she retired in 1986 at age 79. She coined the term “debugging” when she pulled a moth from her computer.
◆2002 Meeting outside Washington D.C., for only the second time since 1800, Congress convened in New York to pay homage to the victims and heroes of Sept. 11, 2001.
◆2002 US officials reported that the assets of Wa'el Hamza Julaidan, alleged al Qaeda financier, had been frozen, and that he had been located in Saudi Arabia.
◆2002 Mexico said it was withdrawing from the 1947 Inter-American Reciprocal Defense Treaty designed to protect the Americas against communism, a year after President Vicente Fox called the agreement obsolete.