Jose Vera, Jr.

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star Medal to Jose Vera, Jr. (0-1684927), First Lieutenant (Infantry), U.S. Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving with Company M, 3d Battalion, 65th Infantry Regiment, 3d Infantry Division. On 6 December 1950, at Majon-dong, Korea, while Lieutenant Vera was in command of a machine gun and recoilless rifle section covering the withdrawal of the FIRST Marine Division from the Chosin Reservoir area, numerically superior enemy forces infiltrated to within a few yards of his machine gun positions during the hours of darkness and attacked at dawn. Heedless of the intense fire, noise and confusion, Lieutenant Vera abandoned the shelter of his command post to direct and personally coordinate the defense of his positions, moving quickly and continuously among his men, encouraging and directing their actions. When one of his machine guns ceased to fire, Lieutenant Vera, realizing that he had to prevent the gun from being captured, moved fearlessly through heavy enemy fire to the machine gun emplacement, where he found that the gunner had been wounded and the machine gun had jammed. Despite the fact that the enemy was only about 15 yards from the emplacement, he remained in the exposed position until he had the machine gun in action. From this position he forced the enemy troops to withdraw in haste, abandoning their equipment. By repulsing their attack, he prevented an encirclement of the rifle platoon. During the attack, when one of his men was mortally wounded, Lieutenant Vera’s left the machine gun emplacement and brought the wounded man back to safety, where he administered first aid treatment. Lieutenant Vera’s gallantry and aggressive leadership were an inspiring example to his men, and reflect great credit upon himself and the military service.