Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: Eleuterio Marquez, first Hispanic American recipient of the Navy Cross

 

I had to do some checking on this one, because I was confused.  Eleuterio "Joe" Marquez is the first Hispanic recipient of the Navy Cross.  Frederick Riefkohl is the first Puerto Rican recipient of the Navy Cross.  

Marquez was born in Los Angeles and was just 19.  He had been in the navy for just a year before he was part of the force that landed on the island of Peleliu during WWII, in September 1944.  At the time, he was Pharmacist's Mate Third Class.  The force took heavy casualties and 59 corpsmen were kill in action.  Marquez established a station where he could administer first aid and plasma, and send wounded troops back to the ships.

In October 1944, Marquez and his unit climbed Bloody Nose Ridge to oust the Japanese from their fortifications.  One night, they came under heavy fire and Marquez was severely wounded, but he managed to start tending wounded. He worked through the night to tend to all of wounded.  

There is apparently a paranormal slant to this story but I won't expand on it.  Yet.

Marquez was awarded the Navy Cross, the first American of Mexican descent to receive the honor.  He passed away in 2015.

https://www.military.com/history/first-hispanic-navy-cross-recipient-was-corpsman-peleliu.html#:~:text=Marquez%20was%20awarded%20the%20Navy,in%202015%20at%20age%2090.