Pvt, USMC — Korean War
Hector Albert Cafferata Jr. was born on November 4, 1929, in New York City, the son of a Peruvian immigrant father and a New Jersey mother. He grew up in the Lake Hiawatha section of Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, graduated from Boonton High School in 1949 after three years of football, and kept playing the game at the semi-pro level after graduation.
He joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1948 and was activated for the Korean War in 1950. As a rifleman with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines of the 1st Marine Division, he marched north with the division into the mountains around the Chosin Reservoir in the brutal winter of 1950.
In the early hours of November 28, 1950, at Toktong Pass, his company was struck by a Chinese force of regimental strength. When every other member of his fire team became a casualty, leaving a dangerous gap in the line, Private Cafferata fought alone — maneuvering up and down the position under intense fire, killing fifteen of the enemy and forcing the rest to withdraw so reinforcements could move up and hold the ground. Later that same morning, when a live enemy grenade landed in a shallow gully sheltering wounded Marines, he rushed in under fire, seized it in his right hand, and hurled it clear before it detonated. The blast tore away part of a finger and seriously wounded his hand and arm.
He received the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. After the war he settled in Florida, married his wife Doris, raised four children, and delighted in visiting the Fort Myers elementary school named in his honor. He died on April 12, 2016, in Venice, Florida, at age 86, and was laid to rest with military honors at Quantico National Cemetery in Virginia.
Sources: Wikipedia · Congressional Medal of Honor Society