First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps — Korean War
Baldomero Lopez was born on August 23, 1925, in Tampa, Florida, the son of a Spanish immigrant, and grew up in Ybor City. A basketball star and JROTC regimental commander at Hillsborough High School, he enlisted in the Navy in July 1943 but was soon appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1947 with a commission as a Marine second lieutenant. He served in China as a mortar section and rifle platoon commander, returned to Camp Pendleton, and volunteered for Korea when war broke out; he was promoted to first lieutenant on June 16, 1950.
Lopez commanded a rifle platoon in Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. On September 15, 1950, he landed in the assault waves at Inchon. Minutes after coming ashore he was captured in one of the war’s most famous photographs — poised atop the seawall, leading his men over it — an image taken shortly before his death.
Moving against the beach defenses, Lopez exposed himself to fire alongside a bunker and raised his arm to throw a hand grenade into a pillbox that was pinning down his sector. Enemy automatic fire struck him in the right shoulder and chest, and he fell, dropping the live grenade. Gravely wounded and losing blood, he dragged himself to it, found he could not grip it firmly enough to throw, and — rather than endanger his men — swept it under his body with his wounded arm and absorbed the full blast. He was 25 years old.
Lopez was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, presented to his parents by Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball on August 30, 1951. He is buried in Centro Asturiano Memorial Park in Tampa, and his citation and photograph hang at the Naval Academy outside the room he once occupied.
Sources: Wikipedia · Congressional Medal of Honor Society