![]() Reese, Jr., a fellow 21-year-old automatic rifleman and full-blooded Cherokee from Pryor, Oklahoma. Rodriguez developed a plan to save his platoon with Private First Class John N. Rodriguez’s platoon launched a frontal assault against the station across the wide expanse, but enemy fire pinned them down 100 yards from the building. Sandbag-lined pillboxes and bunkers protected well-armed and equipped defenders. Nearly invisible entrenched fighting positions dotted the area. Three companies of die-hard Japanese marines were busily fortifying the building. The American advance had pushed the Japanese back to the Paco District’s once-elegant railway station, situated on the broad Plaza Dilao. For nearly a week, he and his fellow soldiers from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 148th Infantry Regiment of the 37th Infantry Division battled to liberate the capital city from a determined enemy. Rodriguez rushed across smoking rubble and into withering Japanese gunfire on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. On February 9, 1945, 21-year-old US Army Private Cleto L. Truman presents Cleto Rodriguez with the Medal of Honor on the White House Lawn on October 12, 1945. ![]()
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