On Nov.28, 1950, PFC Hector A. Cafferata and the men of Fox Co. 2/7 Marines were charged with protecting an escape route near the Chosin Reservoir. At 1:30am , his position was attacked by Chinese forces. Members of his squad were either killed or wounded in the early stages of the ensuing battle, forcing him to gather weapons from his fallen comrades. He was accompanied by a fellow Marine, Kenneth Benson, who was temporarily blinded when a grenade exploded near his face, shattering his glasses.
After instructing Benson to hang on to his foot, they both crawled under fire to a shallow trench, and decided to make a stand there. For the next 5 hours, they waged war against the enemy horde, as Benson would reload the carbine, Cafferata lobbed hand grenades. At one point, he fired all eight shots from his M1, dropping eight enemy soldiers. He shot his M1 rifle so much, he later recalled, “that thing turned to charcoal. I had to put snow on it to cool it off.” Under constant assault from rifle fire, grenades and mortars, he grabbed live enemy grenades and threw them back toward the Chinese forces. He swatted others away with entrenching tool. As daybreak came, PFC Cafferata was seriously wounded by a sniper and was rescued by other Marines. After he was evacuated, medics saw that his feet were blue from frostbite. He had fought for hours without wearing boots or a coat. Officers from his unit later counted approx. one hundred Chinese dead around the ditch where he had fought that night but had decided not to put the figure into their report because they thought that no one would believe it.
After spending 18 months in the hospital, he received the Medal of Honor. “I did my duty, I protected my fellow Marines. They protected me. And I’m prouder of that than the fact that the government decided to give me the Medal of Honor.” He recently passed away on April 12, 2016 at the age of 86. #hero