By Katie Lange – DODLive.mil – National Archives photo.
Photo: President Harry Truman awards the Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sgt. Macario Garcia in 1945.
Medal of Honor recipient, Army Staff Sgt. Macario Garcia, became the first Mexican immigrant to earn this distinction. Garcia was born in Castanos, Mexico, in 1920. At the age of three, his family came to the United States in search of a better life and eventually settled in Sugarland, Texas.
On Nov. 27, 1944, Bravo Company came under fire near Grosshau, Germany. Serving as an acting squad leader, Garcia was badly wounded in the shoulder and foot. He refused evacuation and pushed on alone toward two enemy machine gun nests. With some grenades and his rifle, he wiped out the nests, killing six enemy soldiers and taking four more captive. He continued fighting with his soldiers and was removed for medical care only after the company successfully seized its objective.
