Barnaby Breaks History 🇺🇸@CorpBarnaby
🇺🇸 Most Badass Americans You Don’t Know: #4 Hector Cafferata
Hector Cafferata is an American Badass
He was a 21-year-old Marine PFC. A screaming Chinese assault turned him into a half-naked, barefoot one-man warrior in 30-below-zero hell.
On November 28, 1950, during the savage Battle of Chosin Reservoir in Korea, Cafferata was ripped from his sleeping bag at Fox Hill when over 1,400 fanatical Chinese troops launched a surprise pre-dawn assault on his outnumbered company.
No time for boots.
No time for his parka.
He charged straight into the frozen darkness wearing only socks, underwear, and a thin jacket.
When his entire fire team was cut down in minutes, he stood alone in a critical gap in the Marine line.
For nearly five brutal hours he fought like a demon — dashing up and down the line under heavy fire, pouring rifle fire into the charging waves, hurling grenade after grenade, and batting incoming enemy grenades away with his entrenching tool like a deranged baseball player.
Later he joked that he was terrible at baseball, but must have whacked a dozen grenades that night.
When a live Chinese grenade tumbled into the shallow trench right among several wounded Marines, Cafferata dove in, snatched it up with his bare hand, and hurled it back toward the enemy.
The blast shredded his right hand and arm, blowing off part of a finger, but his buddies lived.
He kept fighting through the pain until the enemy finally broke off the attack at dawn.
He annihilated two enemy platoons.
When it was all over, they found over 100 dead Chinese soldiers piled in front of the ditch he had defended alone.
His one-man stand helped hold the vital Toktong Pass and kept the escape route open for thousands of Marines during the legendary breakout from the Chosin Reservoir.
For this extraordinary heroism, Private First Class Hector Cafferata was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman in 1952.
Semper Fi!
Hector Cafferata is an American Legend 🇺🇸
