PFC, USMC — Korean War
Fernando Luis García Ledesma was born on October 14, 1929, in Utuado, Puerto Rico, where he completed his schooling. He moved to San Juan and was working as a file clerk for the Texas Company when he was inducted into the Marine Corps on September 19, 1951. After recruit training at Parris Island, South Carolina, promotion to private first class, and further training at Camp Pendleton, California, he shipped to Korea in March 1952 with Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines.
On the night of September 5, 1952, his company was defending Outpost Bruce in the Bunker Hill sector near Panmunjom — a combat outpost more than a mile forward of the main line of resistance — when a fanatical enemy force struck in a savage night attack with grenades, mortars, and artillery. Although already painfully wounded, García moved through heavy fire to a supply point to bring up more hand grenades for the defense.
As he was obtaining grenades from his acting platoon sergeant, an enemy grenade landed nearby, endangering them both. García shouted, “I’ll get it!” — and threw his body onto the live grenade, absorbing the full force of the blast. He died instantly; the sergeant, though wounded and knocked unconscious, survived. The position was later overrun, and García’s remains were never recovered.
He was twenty-two. The Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously, and on October 25, 1953, it was presented to his parents at a ceremony in Utuado’s city hall. He was the first of nine Puerto Rican servicemen to receive the Medal of Honor, and remains the only Puerto Rican Marine ever to receive it. A headstone bearing his name stands in the Puerto Rico National Cemetery in Bayamón.
Sources: Wikipedia · Congressional Medal of Honor Society