June 25, 2025 • 37 mins
When President Harry Truman put the Medal of Honor around Macario Garcia’s neck, this heroic soldier wasn’t even an American citizen. Born in Mexico, Macario volunteered to serve in World War II– fearlessly running towards danger. But it’s the courage he showed when he returned to America that would cement his place in history.
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Episode bibliography:
Bailey, Robert and Katherine Bailey. “Seize Occupy and Defend.” Lulu.com, May 19, 2014. https://www.amazon.com/Seize-Occupy-Defend-Robert-Bailey/dp/1312175680.
Olivas, Michael A. The "Trial of the Century" that Never Was: Staff Sgt. Macario Garcia, the Congressional Medal of Honor, and the Oasis Cafè. University of Houston Law Center, 2008. https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1278&context=ilj.
Rivas-Rodríguez, Maggie and Emilio Zamora. “Beyond the Latino World War II Hero: The Social and Political Legacy of a Generation.” University of Texas Press, Dec 1, 2009. https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Latino-World-War-Hero/dp/0292725809.
Rush Robert S. “Hell in the Forest: The 22d Infantry Regiment in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest.” The Army Historical Foundation. https://armyhistory.org/hell-in-the-forest-the-22d-infantry-regiment-in-the-battle-of-hurtgen-forest/
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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The link is also in our show notes below. Pushkin
(00:50):
the Mariachi band played as John F. Kennedy and his
wife Jacqueline made their way through the cheering crowd. It
was early on a warm fall evening in nineteen sixty three,
and the ballroom at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas
was packed with people. They were all there to cheer
(01:10):
their president. He was handsome as usual in a dark
blue suit, his eyes sparkling, shaking hands as he moved
towards the stage. Jackie followed close behind, elegant in a
black velvet jacket and her signature triple strand of pearls.
(01:30):
If there was anything more glamorous than this couple, the
people of Houston hadn't seen it. It was November twenty
first nineteen sixty three. The next day, Kennedy would be
shot and killed in that faithful motorcade in Dallas. But
(01:51):
on this evening, one moment out of the last few
he had alive on Earth, he was making his way
forward through the room, following an honor guard of men,
snaking through the adoring throng of women with big hairdoes
and men with skinny ties. There was one man in
(02:13):
the honor guard that everyone in that room knew, Sergeant
Maccadio Garcia, a hero of World War II, the first
Mexican citizen to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Sergeant
Garcia and the rest of the group reached the dais
at the back of the room. The mariachi band leader
(02:34):
shook the first lady's hand, and then the crowd and
the musicians got quiet. Sergeant Garcia took his seat behind
the president, and JFK stepped to the microphone.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Ladies and gentlemen, my wife and I are very proud to.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Come up to this meeting hall. You sad out the
world would change the very next day, But Maccadio Garcia
with JFK on stage that night, because he had changed
the world as well. I'm Jr. Martinez and this is
(03:11):
Medal of Honor Stories of Courage. The Medal of Honor
is the highest military decoration in the United States, awarded
for gallantry and bravery in combat at the risk of life,
above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must
be approved all the way up the chain of command,
from the supervisory officer in the field to the White House.
(03:34):
This show is about those heroes, what they did, what
it meant, and what their stories tell us about the
nature of courage and sacrifice. This episode is about Maccardio Garcia,
the man sitting behind JFK that night in Houston. He
came from enormous poverty, migrating to Texas with his family
(03:56):
as a toddler, working in the cotton fields as a child,
he stepped up when his country asked him to go
to war. He was a hero of remarkable grint. But
what happened to him between the day President Truman hung
the Medal of Honor around his neck and the moment
he stepped onto that dais behind JFK was a struggle
(04:19):
equal to anything he met on the battlefield. On a
core level, Macgadio's story is about what it means to
make a country your home, what we owe our country,
and what our country owes us. It's also the story
of progress, the kind of progress that outlasted any one person,
(04:41):
whether they're a Medal of Honor recipient or a president.
Because if there's one thing Makgadio gotta see I did,
it was to keep pushing into battle, into the hopes
of a better future, with relentless heroic determination to never
ever go back. The Hurricane Forest sits at the far
(05:10):
western border of Germany, straight.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
From the German folk tales of the brothers Grim.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It was November of nineteen forty four. The fairytale Forest
was now a battlefield, a.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Name that would come to symbolize the long drawn, heartbreak
and despair of war as surely as its fairy tale
counterparts had enshrined the nightmares of childhood.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
The men of the twenty second Infantry Regiment of the
US Army had one mission at the Hurricane Forest, to
fight their way through it, pushing deeper into Nazi territory.
It would be some of the most difficult terrain of
the entire European theater of the war, and some of
the hardest fighting in that forest would fall to a
(05:57):
young soldier in Company B of that regiment, Macadio. Gotta
see you. Maccadio had been born in Via de Castaignos, Mexico,
in the state of Coruila, just a handful of hours
from the Texas border, but he spent almost all his
life until now, of course, in Sugarland, Texas, a ranching
(06:19):
and farming community outside of Houston. He had never seen
anything like the Hurrican Forest. For one thing, the conifer
trees were so tall and tightly clustered that it felt
like twilight even during the middle of the day. The
very few roads that existed in the forest were laden
(06:42):
with mines, so tanks and other vehicles couldn't use them.
That meant that the American gis had to travel mostly
by foot, carrying whatever they needed. And the weather was
just awful, soaking the soldiers in a near constant makes
of snow, sleet, and rain.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
The winter became as vicious an enemy as any lurking
behind the trees in the Hurricane Forest. It was more
where battle tactics lost their meeting, where gains were still
measured in yards and feet.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
In them, the Germans had plotted every acre of the forest,
so they knew exactly where to fire their artillery, and
when a shell hit it wasn't just the steel shrapnel
that rained down on the gis, the trees themselves exploded,
(07:36):
creating lethal burst of splinters and wood, along with falling
trunks that were big enough to crush a man. Macadio
was in one of the bleakest scenarios imaginable, and he
was fighting on behalf of a country where he wasn't
actually a citizen. He was still a a Mexican citizen,
(08:02):
but in the eyes of the US Army he was American,
and I think in his own eyes too. Macgaudio was
twenty four, just about five foot four, with thick, dark
hair and high cheekbones. He had a contagious grin, but
while small in size, he had quickly proved himself to
(08:23):
be an intrepid soldier with amazing grit and determination. He'd
been wounded on June nineteenth in France and refused to
be evacuated to the hospital, insisting on staying with his unit.
For that, he was awarded his first purple Heart. Then
in September he was awarded a bronze Star after he
(08:45):
snuck into German territory on a scouting mission, staying for
three hours, risking discovery and death every minute he was there.
Then he received another Bronze Star after he crept up
to an enemy machine gun. Nest cut the phone line
(09:06):
and took the German gunner prisoner. Macgadiel had the reputation
of being completely fearless, always pushing the boundaries as close
to the enemy as he could get. He and the
army were fighting their way east through France to Belgium,
(09:26):
through Belgium to Germany. This newsreel from the time sums
it up.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
It was slugging and slogging showed much grabbing enough when
you could.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Hyped.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
It was a hell of a way to see France,
but we sure covered ground.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
The Nazis were in retreat and winning the war felt
like it was within the Allies grasp, But Hitler had
ordered his army to hold the line at the Hurtkin Forest.
So now Makadio and the rest of the twenty second
were facing a situation where the enemy was dug in,
hiding behind trees, and where every foot of ground came
(10:15):
at a high cost. In fact, the twenty second infantry
would ultimately suffer more than twenty seven hundred casualties, eighty
five percent of its normal complement of soldiers. All that
loss to take six thousand yards of forest and a
single village. That village was called Grosshouse, but village doesn't
(10:39):
do it justice. It was a heavily defended strong point
filled with waiting enemy soldiers. By November twenty seventh, the
infantry had been trying to take the village four days,
getting beaten back mercilessly each time. Now it was Makkadio's
company's turn to try to move forward and retake that ground.
(11:03):
He and the other hundred some odd men and Company
B knew what they were facing, artillery, machine guns on
the high ground and an enemy that had been ordered
to not give an inch. Actually, the situation was even
worse than it had been in the days before, because
(11:23):
the Germans knew exactly what was coming. Company B could
barely make any headway. One platoon went forward and seventeen
of the eighteen men were killed or wounded. The next
platoon suffered a similar fate. By now Company B was
reduced to only thirty five men. Yet when it was
(11:46):
time for Maccadio's platoon to enter the battle. He volunteered
to go first, as he later said, quote, I was
acting squad leader and I just as soon do it
as asked somebody else to. He and another soldier, Charles Edwards,
headed towards the woods around the village. They had gotten
(12:09):
within twenty yards when all of a sudden, a machine
gun on a hill in front of them started firing.
They were pinned down. Mcgadil looked to his side and
saw Edwards get hit by a bullet in the head.
He died instantly, and then mccadil was shot as well,
(12:30):
right in the shoulder. The pain must have been excruciating,
but mccatiol refused to go back to safety to be
evacuated for medical help. Instead, he crawled forward alone up
the hill and through the brush, inch by painful inch.
He reached a spot near the enemy's machine gun nest
(12:52):
and surprised a German soldier. Maccadio opened fire. The German
did too. A bullet hit mcgadio in the foot, but
he shot the German dead. Macgadio had taken two bullets.
Now it didn't stop him. He kept moving forward toward
(13:13):
the machine gun nest. That had shot down edwards. As
he later said, quote, I did not know the wound
was that serious. I was numb, I think, And besides,
we were moving forward and it was not the time
to stop. Mcgadiel got close to the machine gun nest
and then he took out a grenade, pulled the pin
(13:36):
and hurled it at the gunners. It exploded, destroying the gun.
Three Germans came running out. Mcgadio aimed his rifle and
killed those men as well. One enemy position taken out.
Then mcgadio started back down the hill towards his company.
(13:57):
He reached safety, but right as he began to report
to his company commander, a second machine gun open fire.
Without a moment of hesitation, macgadio turned around and raced
towards the shots back up the hill, not thinking about
his own safety. Just about holding the line, he stormed
(14:21):
the enemy position, grenade in hand. He had bullets in
his foot and shoulder. He was exhausted, he was also enraged.
He threw the grenade and it hit its mark. He
killed three more enemy soldiers and destroyed the gun in
the blast, and he captured four Germans too. As mcgadio
(14:47):
came back down the hill toward Company B. The other
Gis cheered and screamed. His boot was filled with blood.
His shoulder must have been searing with pain. He was
a mess, but he still refused medical help. He wanted
(15:07):
to stay with his men to fight by their side.
Because Macgadio had cleared those machine gun nests, two more
companies from the twenty second were able to charge up
the hill and take it. The cost had been high,
but the men of the twenty second had finally made progress.
(15:29):
Margadio had held the line. Margadio spent almost six weeks
(15:50):
recovering from his wounds in England, but the moment he
was well enough to go, he asked to be returned
to the front line. But by that point it was
clear that the Allies would defeat the Nazis soon enough.
Macgadio was rotated back to the US in March of
nineteen forty five. That April, General George Patten signed off
(16:14):
on his recommendation for the Medal of Honor, noting Macgadio's
quote courageous leadership and supreme devotion to duty. Macgadio couldn't
wait to get home to Sugarland. Texas. He had sent
every penny of his pay back to his family. He
knew how much they needed it. He was one of
(16:35):
ten children. The entire family were farm laborers, as was
true for most rural households like theirs, The kids were
expected to start working in the cotton fields as soon
as they reached school age. So a medal of honor ceremony,
something that placed them and their son in the national spotlight,
(16:56):
was never something they'd expected. His friend se Hernandez remembers.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
It, well, they didn't, not worrying English, and they were
some question in their minds.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Where they could even dress about the White House. So
Caro Gazia the older brothers went in their place.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
He took his brother Carlos to the White House as
his date. Then it was back to Texas and more events.
On September sixth, mcgaudio greeted reporters and various Houston dignitaries
at a reception in his honor, but he was more
than an hour late, racing into the festivities breathless and
(17:36):
soaking wet, he had to hitchhike all the way from
sugar Land. He apologized and said, quote, I'm a country boy,
you know the star treatment had to have been overwhelming.
Mcgaudia was now the first Mexican citizen to be held
up as a perfect example of American courage. But I
(17:59):
think Macgadio must have already considered himself fully American. He
lived in Texas since he was three, and in the war,
in the army, Mexican born soldiers like Macatio were treated
as equal to white ones. They weren't segregated. More than
(18:21):
half a million men of Mexican ancestry had joined the
ranks of the services during World War II, and of those,
fifteen thousand, including Makatio, were actually Mexican citizens. At the
start of the war, Mexico had agreed that the United
States military was allowed to draft Mexican nationals to serve
(18:45):
in the armed forces. In nineteen forty, Congress required that
foreign born people who declared their intention to become citizens
would be subject to military service. Mexicans could file a
form of exemption, but if they did register for the draft,
it would secure them US residents and ensure them US
(19:06):
citizenship after they completed their military service. Putting themselves in
harms way for America was a risk that many were
willing to take in exchange for full acceptance as citizens
in the United States, and the risks were high. Of
the fifteen thousand Mexican nationals who joined the armed forces
in the war, one thousand, four hundred and ninety two
(19:29):
died or were injured, taken prisoner, or disappeared. After that
kind of sacrifice, Mexican veterans like Macadio returned home, assuming
that the United States would see them the way they
felt inside, as full fledged Americans. But Texas wasn't the
(19:49):
Army ernest Idea, a fellow Mexican American Army vet remembers
going from the service back to South Texas.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
When I came back, we were considered second class citizens,
even though we had spent not only our lives, but
four years of our lives in the Armies fighting for
the people back home.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Mcgadil's little brother, Loupe Gotticia, was only two when mcgadil
returned from the war, but he remembers how segregated it
was in Texas, not only then but for years, and
discrimination wasn't illegal either. It was common to see signs
saying no dogs, no Negroes, no Mexicans.
Speaker 6 (20:33):
And that era Hispanics and Blacks were not allowed eating
here in restaurants, the whites always had priority.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
It was not easy.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
That always went on for a long time.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Mcgadio had just come off of one of the most
exhilarating moments of his life, meeting the President of the
United States being honored for his bravery. He was about
to collide headlong with one of the realities of the
country he'd returned to. Late on the night of September tenth,
(21:09):
nineteen forty five, just four days after that event with
the Houston dignitaries, mcgadio and a friend got off the
bus from Fort Hood in Richmond, Texas. There was a
low slung restaurant there on the side of the highway.
The words chicken Dinners were spelled out in big block
letters along the building side. It was called the Oasis Cafe.
(21:34):
Mcgaudio wanted a cup of coffee, maybe something to eat.
There weren't many places opened that late on a Monday night,
but the Oasis Cafe was still serving. Mcgaudio's friend told him, Hey,
let's not go in there. The friend knew the Oasis
didn't welcome Mexican Americans, but according to his brother. Mcgaudio thought,
(22:00):
how can they turn me down. I'm wearing my uniform
and the medal of honor. He pushed opened the door
and walked in.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Says he had the nation's highest award in the Congression
of Metlajuana. He figured that a cup of coffee wouldn't
be that much trouble, but they refused to serve him,
regardless of his decorations.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Here's Ernest again.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
The restaurant has said, I don't give a dan what
he's wearing. He's a Mexican and I will not serve him.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
For the record, the woman who owned the restaurant insisted
that mcgadiol was drunk and belligerent and that's why he
was denied service. Her son, Lou Payton, was there that night.
He was only seventeen at the time. He missed the
initial exchange between his mother and Magadio, but he doesn't
deny that the Oasis Cafe wasn't quote for Mexican Americans.
Speaker 7 (22:57):
We had very few blacks or Mexican argons come in
and ask for service because we didn't cater to their needs.
We didn't have their kind of music, we didn't have
their kind of.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Food, which let's be honest, doesn't sound particularly welcoming. Whatever
the truth that mcgatiel was told to leave because of
his ethnicity, or because he was drunk, or both, the
oasis exploded in violence. Punches were thrown, glasses broken, salt
(23:33):
and pepper shakers, ketchup bottles. Everything suddenly seemed to be
flying through the air. From outside, mcgaudiol's friend could hear
the shattering and the yelling. He caught glimpses of the
commotion through the long line of windows that stretched across
the front of the cafe, pouring their light onto the
darkened parking lot where he stood.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
These guys tore up the brushroom.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Mcgadil had walked through bullets in the and force, only
now to be held down on the counter of the
oasis and hit by a baseball bat. And then he
was dragged outside into the night and the police were
called to arrest him.
Speaker 6 (24:15):
He was taken into the Counta Dale and held there
until some higher army authorities came and had him released again.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Denying Mexican American service wasn't illegal. In fact, it was
so common that the newspapers didn't even pick up the story. Initially,
The editors of one local paper said they didn't want
to cover the story because they didn't want to embarrass
a war hero. But possibly this kind of thing was
just so unremarkable that it didn't merit the paper and ink.
(24:51):
But mcgadio was not just another person. He was a
Medal of Honor recipient, a person to whom extraordinary thing
had happened and were about to happen again. A local
lawyer and activist named John J. Herrera found out about
mcgaudio's situation. He surely recognized a perfect test case to
(25:15):
fight back against anti Mexican discrimination, so he took on
mcgaudio's cause. The first thing Henda did was call the press.
Pretty soon the national columnist Walter Winchell picked up the story.
If you never heard of Walter Winchell, he was the
voice of the country. Everyone listened to Winchell, and now
(25:38):
you're about to heads up. He gets some of the
details wrong, but he gets the feeling exactly right.
Speaker 8 (25:47):
Attention to Mistermissige the United States, an American soldier recently
decorated with the Congressional Medal of Honor by the President
of the United States, was terribly beaten with a baseball
back in Sugarland, Texas. This hero, who fought for our
country and won the highest award our people can get
to any man, is named Sergeant Marcio Gotia, a Mexican.
(26:10):
The elected attack took place at a soft drink pala
where Sargeant Gosha try to buy a soft drink. He
was refused service although he was wearing the United States
uniform at the time. When Sergeant Gosha protested, the beating
with the baseball bat followed.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
And now here is the part that made the local
politicians of Fort Ben County, Texas and the rest of
America perk up their ears.
Speaker 8 (26:35):
The persons responsible for this disgraceful assault could hardly be Texans,
and Texas has too many sons wearing the Congressional Medal
of Honor to permit any homegrown fascist to spatter it
with any hero's blood.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
But things only got worse from Macadio because the ensuing
press was absolutely terrible both of Fort Ben and Suddenly
those local politicians needed to put the heat on someone
other than themselves. And that is why in October of
nineteen forty five, after returning home from Washington, where he
(27:14):
received his honorable discharge from the Army. Macgadio was formerly
charged with criminal assault and battery. Almost instantly, the case
became a rallying point for Mexican Americans in Texas and beyond.
Herea was involved with the League of the United Latin
American Citizens or LULAC, at that point, the largest Latino
(27:39):
civil rights organization in the country. He started raising money
for mcgadio's defense and using what happened at the Oasis
to bring attention to the discrimination against Latinos and Texas.
People all over the country sent money to support the defense.
The prosecutors of Fort Benn County refused to back down.
(28:00):
The trial went forward, but it had to be postponed
again and again because the venues weren't big enough to
accommodate all the media who wanted to attend. In the
midst of this legal wrangling, maccadio flew to Mexico City
to receive the Medito Militare, the top honor from military
(28:23):
service in Mexico. At the ceremony, Manuel Avila Camacho, the
President of Mexico, proudly announced that quote soldiers of Mexican
origin are the best fighters in the world. The addition
of one more medal to macgadio's chest brought the case
(28:44):
another round of publicity, and then in June, supposedly because
Harry Truman himself stepped in on maccadio's behalf, his case
got a new lead defense attorney, James Alred, the former
governor of Texas, and soon enough the charges against mcgadio
(29:04):
were finally dropped. Once again, mcgadio had held the line
and prevailed. Mcgadio gotta seea became a US citizen on
(29:30):
June twenty fifth, nineteen forty seven. Mcgadil went to work
for the Veterans Administration. He made up for the lack
of education he had as a child. He went back
to school, He got married, he had three kids, and
he kept fighting for others, pressing for progress and fairness
(29:51):
and change, helping veterans in their families. Not cashing in
on his heroism, mcgadill always insisted that he hadn't done
anything the extraordinary on the battlefield. He had just been
in the right place, in the right time, with the
right people watching. As the years rolled on, the world
(30:15):
became a bit more progressive. John F. Kennedy was elected
on a wave of support for civil rights, including for Latinos.
In fact, it was LULAK, the same organization that had
rallied behind macgadio's case, that helped get the Latino vote
for Kennedy, which brings us, of course, to that night
(30:36):
before Kennedy died. The evening of November twenty first, nineteen
sixty three, JFK was on a multi day tour of Texas,
and the second it was clear that he would visit Houston,
John J. Herrera started working to get the president to
a LULAC event. The effort paid off, although they were
(30:58):
told not to advert highs his appearance. Lu Luck was
informed that the President would drop by the event as
a way to thank them for their past support and
rally them for the upcoming election. And when he showed up,
there was maccadio.
Speaker 6 (31:14):
JFK came to the Lulah convention and he was greeted
at the door by my brother, Sergeant.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Said mccadill, led the honor guard and sat on the
stage behind the President as he spoke to the crowd.
Speaker 9 (31:31):
The United States is not only good names, which we
were in the thirties, but also friends and associates in
a great effort to build in this hemisphere an alliance
for progress, an effort to prove that in this hemisphere,
from top.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
To bottom, in all of the countries, whether they be
Latin or North American, that there is a common commitment
to freedom, to equality of opportunity, to a transfer all.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Then his wife Jackie spoke in Spanish to the sound
of cheers. So it's sat the armenta.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Contall monta de la nobil study.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
The whole presidential visit only lasted fifteen minutes, but to
the people in that room it felt monumental, the start
of something better. And then the next day, Dallas, this official.
Speaker 10 (32:37):
Mount, the president is dead. Women here in shock, some
sainted secret servicemen standing by the emergency room, tears stripping
down their face. There's only one word to describe the
picture here, and that's breathed, and much of it.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Anyone alive that day felt the gravity of that moment,
the sadnesses, the sense that a man who had done
his level best to lead the country forward had been
cut down in his prime. But that's why I keep
thinking about what it means that JFK was with Maccatio
the night before. It's a reminder that change and progress
(33:16):
aren't the work of one man or one moment, but
of a steady constant pushing, holding the line, edging it forward.
If you can accepting the sacrifice. Macgadio Gottacia died in
a car crash in nineteen seventy two. He was only
(33:37):
fifty two years old. The funeral went on for two days,
thousands of people attended, and eventually mcgatio's name was enshrined
in Texas. A road was named after him in Houston,
plus two schools and an army reserve center. And the
(33:59):
years before for his death, Makadiel had continued his work
supporting the military. He traveled to Vietnam in nineteen sixty
eight to talk to the troops. He was interviewed in
the paper saying quote, I was a Mexican citizen, but
I lived in this country, and I said that if
the country called me, I would not refuse. I didn't
(34:20):
want to go and fight and take a chance of
getting killed. Nobody does. But a man has a more
responsibility to fight for his country or a country that
is good to him. Of course, this country wasn't always
good to him, but he saw it for what it
could be not just for what it was.
Speaker 6 (34:41):
He fought the war in two fronts, in the battlefield
against the Nazi Germans and here at home in the
domestic front against the discrimination. Or he was victorious in both.
If it not been were that medal that President Truman
awarded him his role as a civil rights activist, would
(35:03):
I had no merit at tall.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
It's true, the Medal of Honor gave Macgadio the confidence
to walk into the Oasis cafe and asked to be served.
It gave him the platform for the public fight against discrimination.
It gave him his place in history. But what made
him a hero was his ability to make progress against
(35:30):
the Germans, against segregation, or as he once put it,
he was moving forward and it was not the time
to stop. Medal of Honor Stories of Courage is written
(36:03):
by Meredith Rollins and produced by Meredith Rollins, Jess Shane,
and Suzanne Gabber. Our editor is Ben Nadav Hoffrey. Sound
design and additional music by Jake Gorsky. Our executive producer
is Constanza Gallardo. Fact checking by Arthur Gomperts. Original music
by Eric Phillips. Special thanks to the Congressional Medal of
(36:23):
Honor Society, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum,
the Houston History Research Center, Houston Oral History Project, TCU,
MARYKLZ Burnett Library, and w E TA. We also want
to hear from you. Send us your personal stories of
courage or highlight someone else's bravery. You might hear your
(36:46):
stories on future episodes of Medal of Honor or see
them on our social channels. All you have to do
is email us at Medal of Honor at Pushkin dot FM.
I'm your host, JR. Martinez The tot Asad ad
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Tell us what you love about the show, what we
can improve on, or stories you think we've missed. We're
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(00:27):
The link is also in our show notes below. Pushkin
(00:50):
the Mariachi band played as John F. Kennedy and his
wife Jacqueline made their way through the cheering crowd. It
was early on a warm fall evening in nineteen sixty three,
and the ballroom at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas
was packed with people. They were all there to cheer
(01:10):
their president. He was handsome as usual in a dark
blue suit, his eyes sparkling, shaking hands as he moved
towards the stage. Jackie followed close behind, elegant in a
black velvet jacket and her signature triple strand of pearls.
(01:30):
If there was anything more glamorous than this couple, the
people of Houston hadn't seen it. It was November twenty
first nineteen sixty three. The next day, Kennedy would be
shot and killed in that faithful motorcade in Dallas. But
(01:51):
on this evening, one moment out of the last few
he had alive on Earth, he was making his way
forward through the room, following an honor guard of men,
snaking through the adoring throng of women with big hairdoes
and men with skinny ties. There was one man in
(02:13):
the honor guard that everyone in that room knew, Sergeant
Maccadio Garcia, a hero of World War II, the first
Mexican citizen to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Sergeant
Garcia and the rest of the group reached the dais
at the back of the room. The mariachi band leader
(02:34):
shook the first lady's hand, and then the crowd and
the musicians got quiet. Sergeant Garcia took his seat behind
the president, and JFK stepped to the microphone.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Ladies and gentlemen, my wife and I are very proud to.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Come up to this meeting hall. You sad out the
world would change the very next day, But Maccadio Garcia
with JFK on stage that night, because he had changed
the world as well. I'm Jr. Martinez and this is
(03:11):
Medal of Honor Stories of Courage. The Medal of Honor
is the highest military decoration in the United States, awarded
for gallantry and bravery in combat at the risk of life,
above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must
be approved all the way up the chain of command,
from the supervisory officer in the field to the White House.
(03:34):
This show is about those heroes, what they did, what
it meant, and what their stories tell us about the
nature of courage and sacrifice. This episode is about Maccardio Garcia,
the man sitting behind JFK that night in Houston. He
came from enormous poverty, migrating to Texas with his family
(03:56):
as a toddler, working in the cotton fields as a child,
he stepped up when his country asked him to go
to war. He was a hero of remarkable grint. But
what happened to him between the day President Truman hung
the Medal of Honor around his neck and the moment
he stepped onto that dais behind JFK was a struggle
(04:19):
equal to anything he met on the battlefield. On a
core level, Macgadio's story is about what it means to
make a country your home, what we owe our country,
and what our country owes us. It's also the story
of progress, the kind of progress that outlasted any one person,
(04:41):
whether they're a Medal of Honor recipient or a president.
Because if there's one thing Makgadio gotta see I did,
it was to keep pushing into battle, into the hopes
of a better future, with relentless heroic determination to never
ever go back. The Hurricane Forest sits at the far
(05:10):
western border of Germany, straight.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
From the German folk tales of the brothers Grim.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It was November of nineteen forty four. The fairytale Forest
was now a battlefield, a.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Name that would come to symbolize the long drawn, heartbreak
and despair of war as surely as its fairy tale
counterparts had enshrined the nightmares of childhood.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
The men of the twenty second Infantry Regiment of the
US Army had one mission at the Hurricane Forest, to
fight their way through it, pushing deeper into Nazi territory.
It would be some of the most difficult terrain of
the entire European theater of the war, and some of
the hardest fighting in that forest would fall to a
(05:57):
young soldier in Company B of that regiment, Macadio. Gotta
see you. Maccadio had been born in Via de Castaignos, Mexico,
in the state of Coruila, just a handful of hours
from the Texas border, but he spent almost all his
life until now, of course, in Sugarland, Texas, a ranching
(06:19):
and farming community outside of Houston. He had never seen
anything like the Hurrican Forest. For one thing, the conifer
trees were so tall and tightly clustered that it felt
like twilight even during the middle of the day. The
very few roads that existed in the forest were laden
(06:42):
with mines, so tanks and other vehicles couldn't use them.
That meant that the American gis had to travel mostly
by foot, carrying whatever they needed. And the weather was
just awful, soaking the soldiers in a near constant makes
of snow, sleet, and rain.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
The winter became as vicious an enemy as any lurking
behind the trees in the Hurricane Forest. It was more
where battle tactics lost their meeting, where gains were still
measured in yards and feet.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
In them, the Germans had plotted every acre of the forest,
so they knew exactly where to fire their artillery, and
when a shell hit it wasn't just the steel shrapnel
that rained down on the gis, the trees themselves exploded,
(07:36):
creating lethal burst of splinters and wood, along with falling
trunks that were big enough to crush a man. Macadio
was in one of the bleakest scenarios imaginable, and he
was fighting on behalf of a country where he wasn't
actually a citizen. He was still a a Mexican citizen,
(08:02):
but in the eyes of the US Army he was American,
and I think in his own eyes too. Macgaudio was
twenty four, just about five foot four, with thick, dark
hair and high cheekbones. He had a contagious grin, but
while small in size, he had quickly proved himself to
(08:23):
be an intrepid soldier with amazing grit and determination. He'd
been wounded on June nineteenth in France and refused to
be evacuated to the hospital, insisting on staying with his unit.
For that, he was awarded his first purple Heart. Then
in September he was awarded a bronze Star after he
(08:45):
snuck into German territory on a scouting mission, staying for
three hours, risking discovery and death every minute he was there.
Then he received another Bronze Star after he crept up
to an enemy machine gun. Nest cut the phone line
(09:06):
and took the German gunner prisoner. Macgadiel had the reputation
of being completely fearless, always pushing the boundaries as close
to the enemy as he could get. He and the
army were fighting their way east through France to Belgium,
(09:26):
through Belgium to Germany. This newsreel from the time sums
it up.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
It was slugging and slogging showed much grabbing enough when
you could.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Hyped.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
It was a hell of a way to see France,
but we sure covered ground.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
The Nazis were in retreat and winning the war felt
like it was within the Allies grasp, But Hitler had
ordered his army to hold the line at the Hurtkin Forest.
So now Makadio and the rest of the twenty second
were facing a situation where the enemy was dug in,
hiding behind trees, and where every foot of ground came
(10:15):
at a high cost. In fact, the twenty second infantry
would ultimately suffer more than twenty seven hundred casualties, eighty
five percent of its normal complement of soldiers. All that
loss to take six thousand yards of forest and a
single village. That village was called Grosshouse, but village doesn't
(10:39):
do it justice. It was a heavily defended strong point
filled with waiting enemy soldiers. By November twenty seventh, the
infantry had been trying to take the village four days,
getting beaten back mercilessly each time. Now it was Makkadio's
company's turn to try to move forward and retake that ground.
(11:03):
He and the other hundred some odd men and Company
B knew what they were facing, artillery, machine guns on
the high ground and an enemy that had been ordered
to not give an inch. Actually, the situation was even
worse than it had been in the days before, because
(11:23):
the Germans knew exactly what was coming. Company B could
barely make any headway. One platoon went forward and seventeen
of the eighteen men were killed or wounded. The next
platoon suffered a similar fate. By now Company B was
reduced to only thirty five men. Yet when it was
(11:46):
time for Maccadio's platoon to enter the battle. He volunteered
to go first, as he later said, quote, I was
acting squad leader and I just as soon do it
as asked somebody else to. He and another soldier, Charles Edwards,
headed towards the woods around the village. They had gotten
(12:09):
within twenty yards when all of a sudden, a machine
gun on a hill in front of them started firing.
They were pinned down. Mcgadil looked to his side and
saw Edwards get hit by a bullet in the head.
He died instantly, and then mccadil was shot as well,
(12:30):
right in the shoulder. The pain must have been excruciating,
but mccatiol refused to go back to safety to be
evacuated for medical help. Instead, he crawled forward alone up
the hill and through the brush, inch by painful inch.
He reached a spot near the enemy's machine gun nest
(12:52):
and surprised a German soldier. Maccadio opened fire. The German
did too. A bullet hit mcgadio in the foot, but
he shot the German dead. Macgadio had taken two bullets.
Now it didn't stop him. He kept moving forward toward
(13:13):
the machine gun nest. That had shot down edwards. As
he later said, quote, I did not know the wound
was that serious. I was numb, I think, And besides,
we were moving forward and it was not the time
to stop. Mcgadiel got close to the machine gun nest
and then he took out a grenade, pulled the pin
(13:36):
and hurled it at the gunners. It exploded, destroying the gun.
Three Germans came running out. Mcgadio aimed his rifle and
killed those men as well. One enemy position taken out.
Then mcgadio started back down the hill towards his company.
(13:57):
He reached safety, but right as he began to report
to his company commander, a second machine gun open fire.
Without a moment of hesitation, macgadio turned around and raced
towards the shots back up the hill, not thinking about
his own safety. Just about holding the line, he stormed
(14:21):
the enemy position, grenade in hand. He had bullets in
his foot and shoulder. He was exhausted, he was also enraged.
He threw the grenade and it hit its mark. He
killed three more enemy soldiers and destroyed the gun in
the blast, and he captured four Germans too. As mcgadio
(14:47):
came back down the hill toward Company B. The other
Gis cheered and screamed. His boot was filled with blood.
His shoulder must have been searing with pain. He was
a mess, but he still refused medical help. He wanted
(15:07):
to stay with his men to fight by their side.
Because Macgadio had cleared those machine gun nests, two more
companies from the twenty second were able to charge up
the hill and take it. The cost had been high,
but the men of the twenty second had finally made progress.
(15:29):
Margadio had held the line. Margadio spent almost six weeks
(15:50):
recovering from his wounds in England, but the moment he
was well enough to go, he asked to be returned
to the front line. But by that point it was
clear that the Allies would defeat the Nazis soon enough.
Macgadio was rotated back to the US in March of
nineteen forty five. That April, General George Patten signed off
(16:14):
on his recommendation for the Medal of Honor, noting Macgadio's
quote courageous leadership and supreme devotion to duty. Macgadio couldn't
wait to get home to Sugarland. Texas. He had sent
every penny of his pay back to his family. He
knew how much they needed it. He was one of
(16:35):
ten children. The entire family were farm laborers, as was
true for most rural households like theirs, The kids were
expected to start working in the cotton fields as soon
as they reached school age. So a medal of honor ceremony,
something that placed them and their son in the national spotlight,
(16:56):
was never something they'd expected. His friend se Hernandez remembers.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
It, well, they didn't, not worrying English, and they were
some question in their minds.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Where they could even dress about the White House. So
Caro Gazia the older brothers went in their place.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
He took his brother Carlos to the White House as
his date. Then it was back to Texas and more events.
On September sixth, mcgaudio greeted reporters and various Houston dignitaries
at a reception in his honor, but he was more
than an hour late, racing into the festivities breathless and
(17:36):
soaking wet, he had to hitchhike all the way from
sugar Land. He apologized and said, quote, I'm a country boy,
you know the star treatment had to have been overwhelming.
Mcgaudia was now the first Mexican citizen to be held
up as a perfect example of American courage. But I
(17:59):
think Macgadio must have already considered himself fully American. He
lived in Texas since he was three, and in the war,
in the army, Mexican born soldiers like Macatio were treated
as equal to white ones. They weren't segregated. More than
(18:21):
half a million men of Mexican ancestry had joined the
ranks of the services during World War II, and of those,
fifteen thousand, including Makatio, were actually Mexican citizens. At the
start of the war, Mexico had agreed that the United
States military was allowed to draft Mexican nationals to serve
(18:45):
in the armed forces. In nineteen forty, Congress required that
foreign born people who declared their intention to become citizens
would be subject to military service. Mexicans could file a
form of exemption, but if they did register for the draft,
it would secure them US residents and ensure them US
(19:06):
citizenship after they completed their military service. Putting themselves in
harms way for America was a risk that many were
willing to take in exchange for full acceptance as citizens
in the United States, and the risks were high. Of
the fifteen thousand Mexican nationals who joined the armed forces
in the war, one thousand, four hundred and ninety two
(19:29):
died or were injured, taken prisoner, or disappeared. After that
kind of sacrifice, Mexican veterans like Macadio returned home, assuming
that the United States would see them the way they
felt inside, as full fledged Americans. But Texas wasn't the
(19:49):
Army ernest Idea, a fellow Mexican American Army vet remembers
going from the service back to South Texas.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
When I came back, we were considered second class citizens,
even though we had spent not only our lives, but
four years of our lives in the Armies fighting for
the people back home.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Mcgadil's little brother, Loupe Gotticia, was only two when mcgadil
returned from the war, but he remembers how segregated it
was in Texas, not only then but for years, and
discrimination wasn't illegal either. It was common to see signs
saying no dogs, no Negroes, no Mexicans.
Speaker 6 (20:33):
And that era Hispanics and Blacks were not allowed eating
here in restaurants, the whites always had priority.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
It was not easy.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
That always went on for a long time.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Mcgadio had just come off of one of the most
exhilarating moments of his life, meeting the President of the
United States being honored for his bravery. He was about
to collide headlong with one of the realities of the
country he'd returned to. Late on the night of September tenth,
(21:09):
nineteen forty five, just four days after that event with
the Houston dignitaries, mcgadio and a friend got off the
bus from Fort Hood in Richmond, Texas. There was a
low slung restaurant there on the side of the highway.
The words chicken Dinners were spelled out in big block
letters along the building side. It was called the Oasis Cafe.
(21:34):
Mcgaudio wanted a cup of coffee, maybe something to eat.
There weren't many places opened that late on a Monday night,
but the Oasis Cafe was still serving. Mcgaudio's friend told him, Hey,
let's not go in there. The friend knew the Oasis
didn't welcome Mexican Americans, but according to his brother. Mcgaudio thought,
(22:00):
how can they turn me down. I'm wearing my uniform
and the medal of honor. He pushed opened the door
and walked in.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Says he had the nation's highest award in the Congression
of Metlajuana. He figured that a cup of coffee wouldn't
be that much trouble, but they refused to serve him,
regardless of his decorations.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Here's Ernest again.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
The restaurant has said, I don't give a dan what
he's wearing. He's a Mexican and I will not serve him.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
For the record, the woman who owned the restaurant insisted
that mcgadiol was drunk and belligerent and that's why he
was denied service. Her son, Lou Payton, was there that night.
He was only seventeen at the time. He missed the
initial exchange between his mother and Magadio, but he doesn't
deny that the Oasis Cafe wasn't quote for Mexican Americans.
Speaker 7 (22:57):
We had very few blacks or Mexican argons come in
and ask for service because we didn't cater to their needs.
We didn't have their kind of music, we didn't have
their kind of.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Food, which let's be honest, doesn't sound particularly welcoming. Whatever
the truth that mcgatiel was told to leave because of
his ethnicity, or because he was drunk, or both, the
oasis exploded in violence. Punches were thrown, glasses broken, salt
(23:33):
and pepper shakers, ketchup bottles. Everything suddenly seemed to be
flying through the air. From outside, mcgaudiol's friend could hear
the shattering and the yelling. He caught glimpses of the
commotion through the long line of windows that stretched across
the front of the cafe, pouring their light onto the
darkened parking lot where he stood.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
These guys tore up the brushroom.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Mcgadil had walked through bullets in the and force, only
now to be held down on the counter of the
oasis and hit by a baseball bat. And then he
was dragged outside into the night and the police were
called to arrest him.
Speaker 6 (24:15):
He was taken into the Counta Dale and held there
until some higher army authorities came and had him released again.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Denying Mexican American service wasn't illegal. In fact, it was
so common that the newspapers didn't even pick up the story. Initially,
The editors of one local paper said they didn't want
to cover the story because they didn't want to embarrass
a war hero. But possibly this kind of thing was
just so unremarkable that it didn't merit the paper and ink.
(24:51):
But mcgadio was not just another person. He was a
Medal of Honor recipient, a person to whom extraordinary thing
had happened and were about to happen again. A local
lawyer and activist named John J. Herrera found out about
mcgaudio's situation. He surely recognized a perfect test case to
(25:15):
fight back against anti Mexican discrimination, so he took on
mcgaudio's cause. The first thing Henda did was call the press.
Pretty soon the national columnist Walter Winchell picked up the story.
If you never heard of Walter Winchell, he was the
voice of the country. Everyone listened to Winchell, and now
(25:38):
you're about to heads up. He gets some of the
details wrong, but he gets the feeling exactly right.
Speaker 8 (25:47):
Attention to Mistermissige the United States, an American soldier recently
decorated with the Congressional Medal of Honor by the President
of the United States, was terribly beaten with a baseball
back in Sugarland, Texas. This hero, who fought for our
country and won the highest award our people can get
to any man, is named Sergeant Marcio Gotia, a Mexican.
(26:10):
The elected attack took place at a soft drink pala
where Sargeant Gosha try to buy a soft drink. He
was refused service although he was wearing the United States
uniform at the time. When Sergeant Gosha protested, the beating
with the baseball bat followed.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
And now here is the part that made the local
politicians of Fort Ben County, Texas and the rest of
America perk up their ears.
Speaker 8 (26:35):
The persons responsible for this disgraceful assault could hardly be Texans,
and Texas has too many sons wearing the Congressional Medal
of Honor to permit any homegrown fascist to spatter it
with any hero's blood.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
But things only got worse from Macadio because the ensuing
press was absolutely terrible both of Fort Ben and Suddenly
those local politicians needed to put the heat on someone
other than themselves. And that is why in October of
nineteen forty five, after returning home from Washington, where he
(27:14):
received his honorable discharge from the Army. Macgadio was formerly
charged with criminal assault and battery. Almost instantly, the case
became a rallying point for Mexican Americans in Texas and beyond.
Herea was involved with the League of the United Latin
American Citizens or LULAC, at that point, the largest Latino
(27:39):
civil rights organization in the country. He started raising money
for mcgadio's defense and using what happened at the Oasis
to bring attention to the discrimination against Latinos and Texas.
People all over the country sent money to support the defense.
The prosecutors of Fort Benn County refused to back down.
(28:00):
The trial went forward, but it had to be postponed
again and again because the venues weren't big enough to
accommodate all the media who wanted to attend. In the
midst of this legal wrangling, maccadio flew to Mexico City
to receive the Medito Militare, the top honor from military
(28:23):
service in Mexico. At the ceremony, Manuel Avila Camacho, the
President of Mexico, proudly announced that quote soldiers of Mexican
origin are the best fighters in the world. The addition
of one more medal to macgadio's chest brought the case
(28:44):
another round of publicity, and then in June, supposedly because
Harry Truman himself stepped in on maccadio's behalf, his case
got a new lead defense attorney, James Alred, the former
governor of Texas, and soon enough the charges against mcgadio
(29:04):
were finally dropped. Once again, mcgadio had held the line
and prevailed. Mcgadio gotta seea became a US citizen on
(29:30):
June twenty fifth, nineteen forty seven. Mcgadil went to work
for the Veterans Administration. He made up for the lack
of education he had as a child. He went back
to school, He got married, he had three kids, and
he kept fighting for others, pressing for progress and fairness
(29:51):
and change, helping veterans in their families. Not cashing in
on his heroism, mcgadill always insisted that he hadn't done
anything the extraordinary on the battlefield. He had just been
in the right place, in the right time, with the
right people watching. As the years rolled on, the world
(30:15):
became a bit more progressive. John F. Kennedy was elected
on a wave of support for civil rights, including for Latinos.
In fact, it was LULAK, the same organization that had
rallied behind macgadio's case, that helped get the Latino vote
for Kennedy, which brings us, of course, to that night
(30:36):
before Kennedy died. The evening of November twenty first, nineteen
sixty three, JFK was on a multi day tour of Texas,
and the second it was clear that he would visit Houston,
John J. Herrera started working to get the president to
a LULAC event. The effort paid off, although they were
(30:58):
told not to advert highs his appearance. Lu Luck was
informed that the President would drop by the event as
a way to thank them for their past support and
rally them for the upcoming election. And when he showed up,
there was maccadio.
Speaker 6 (31:14):
JFK came to the Lulah convention and he was greeted
at the door by my brother, Sergeant.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Said mccadill, led the honor guard and sat on the
stage behind the President as he spoke to the crowd.
Speaker 9 (31:31):
The United States is not only good names, which we
were in the thirties, but also friends and associates in
a great effort to build in this hemisphere an alliance
for progress, an effort to prove that in this hemisphere,
from top.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
To bottom, in all of the countries, whether they be
Latin or North American, that there is a common commitment
to freedom, to equality of opportunity, to a transfer all.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Then his wife Jackie spoke in Spanish to the sound
of cheers. So it's sat the armenta.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Contall monta de la nobil study.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
The whole presidential visit only lasted fifteen minutes, but to
the people in that room it felt monumental, the start
of something better. And then the next day, Dallas, this official.
Speaker 10 (32:37):
Mount, the president is dead. Women here in shock, some
sainted secret servicemen standing by the emergency room, tears stripping
down their face. There's only one word to describe the
picture here, and that's breathed, and much of it.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Anyone alive that day felt the gravity of that moment,
the sadnesses, the sense that a man who had done
his level best to lead the country forward had been
cut down in his prime. But that's why I keep
thinking about what it means that JFK was with Maccatio
the night before. It's a reminder that change and progress
(33:16):
aren't the work of one man or one moment, but
of a steady constant pushing, holding the line, edging it forward.
If you can accepting the sacrifice. Macgadio Gottacia died in
a car crash in nineteen seventy two. He was only
(33:37):
fifty two years old. The funeral went on for two days,
thousands of people attended, and eventually mcgatio's name was enshrined
in Texas. A road was named after him in Houston,
plus two schools and an army reserve center. And the
(33:59):
years before for his death, Makadiel had continued his work
supporting the military. He traveled to Vietnam in nineteen sixty
eight to talk to the troops. He was interviewed in
the paper saying quote, I was a Mexican citizen, but
I lived in this country, and I said that if
the country called me, I would not refuse. I didn't
(34:20):
want to go and fight and take a chance of
getting killed. Nobody does. But a man has a more
responsibility to fight for his country or a country that
is good to him. Of course, this country wasn't always
good to him, but he saw it for what it
could be not just for what it was.
Speaker 6 (34:41):
He fought the war in two fronts, in the battlefield
against the Nazi Germans and here at home in the
domestic front against the discrimination. Or he was victorious in both.
If it not been were that medal that President Truman
awarded him his role as a civil rights activist, would
(35:03):
I had no merit at tall.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
It's true, the Medal of Honor gave Macgadio the confidence
to walk into the Oasis cafe and asked to be served.
It gave him the platform for the public fight against discrimination.
It gave him his place in history. But what made
him a hero was his ability to make progress against
(35:30):
the Germans, against segregation, or as he once put it,
he was moving forward and it was not the time
to stop. Medal of Honor Stories of Courage is written
(36:03):
by Meredith Rollins and produced by Meredith Rollins, Jess Shane,
and Suzanne Gabber. Our editor is Ben Nadav Hoffrey. Sound
design and additional music by Jake Gorsky. Our executive producer
is Constanza Gallardo. Fact checking by Arthur Gomperts. Original music
by Eric Phillips. Special thanks to the Congressional Medal of
(36:23):
Honor Society, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum,
the Houston History Research Center, Houston Oral History Project, TCU,
MARYKLZ Burnett Library, and w E TA. We also want
to hear from you. Send us your personal stories of
courage or highlight someone else's bravery. You might hear your
(36:46):
stories on future episodes of Medal of Honor or see
them on our social channels. All you have to do
is email us at Medal of Honor at Pushkin dot FM.
I'm your host, JR. Martinez The tot Asad ad
Host
Malcolm Gladwell
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