PFC Manuel Pérez, Medal of Honor - One Paratrooper's Assault on Fort McKinley in 1945

Introduction to Down From Heaven

0:00You're listening to Down From Heaven, a podcast that covers the history of the 11th Airborne Division from World War II through today. I'm your host, Jeremy Holm. Thank you for joining me today. Let's jump right in.

Host Introduction

0:30Hello, friends. Thank you for joining me today. My name is Jeremy Holm. I am an 11th Airborne Division historian. I'm also the author of three books on the angels, When Angels Fall.

1:00The 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment in World War II, as well as Down From Heaven, the 11th Airborne Division in World War II, Volumes 1 and 2. All three books are available on Amazon, as well as our online store. Now, I also run two online museums dedicated to the angels, 511pir.com and 11thairborne.com. On both these sites, you'll find photos, videos, interviews with angels, documents, other records, maps, maps, so on and so forth.

1:30So make sure you check those out. And if you'd like to support this channel, if you like what we're doing, please visit our online store, 11thairborne.com forward slash store. There you'll find our 11th Airborne challenge coins. We have hats, posters, coasters. You can get autographed copies of our books and all sorts of other Airborne items. You can also donate online to help us preserve the history of the 11th Airborne Division. And I want to thank everyone who has contributed so far. Your recent donations have gone towards some new recording equipment, which will help us

2:02improve our efforts to tell the story of the angels. Recent donations also helped us with a research trip out to the great state of Oklahoma, my old hometown. That's right. While I was born right outside Valley Forge, I grew up in Oklahoma, which brings me to the

Oklahoma Roots

2:18topic of today's video, Oklahoma's own, Manuel Perez, recipient of the Medal of Honor. This is his story.

2:28The great author J.R.R. Tolkien once said, courage is found in unlikely places. This is the story of one of those times where the highest level of courage was displayed by someone who at first glance might seem like an unlikely source of such bravery. But looks can be deceiving. And on one fateful day in 1945, as one newspaper put it, Manuel Perez fought for our country with the strength and fury of a hundred supermen.

Early Life

2:59Manuel Toots Perez Jr. was born on March 3rd, 1923 in the Riverside area of Oklahoma City. And while researching Manuel's life, I found one newspaper article that said that Riverside was a dingy part of the city. That's not very nice. Now, Manuel's parents had just immigrated from Mexico, so they had very little money. So as a result, Manuel Jr. was born in a frame house on 645 Southeast 6th Street. This puts his old homestead right in what is now Oklahoma City's boathouse district.

3:32So if you ever go visit there, if you stand right in front of the fitness court and look north, Manuel's birthplace, his home, was right across the street. The house actually belonged to Manuel's aunt, Salome Perez Cardenas, and her husband Adolf. Now, I mentioned that Manuel's parents had just immigrated from Mexico, and their heritage of rich faith and hard work would deeply impact Manuel's life and his character. Manuel was baptized by Father Edward Soler on April 15th in the Our Lady of Mount Carmel

4:06and St. Therese Little Flower Church, which you can actually still visit today. But little Manuel's faith would soon be challenged. Two years after the Perez family moved to Chicago's little village neighborhood, Manuel's

Family and Faith

4:18loving mother Isidra died. Manuel was only four years old. As a result, young Manuel would be raised by his father and grandmother, Tabersia Moncada, at 1125 South Racine Avenue. In addition, Manuel's uncle Jesse and Aunt Emily Perez stepped in to help serve as kind of surrogate parents for the future paratrooper. And it is no surprise that Manuel remained close to his uncle until his death. While their old house in Chicago's little village neighborhood is just a parking lot now,

4:50the Perez family always attended church at their St. Francis of Assisi parish, which is still standing today. Manuel was very active in the church's youth groups. One church newsletter said that he played on various sports teams and was an all-around social lad, noted for his dancing ability and cheerful disposition. The family's church has been a bastion of faith for local immigrants from Mexico for nearly 100 years and is symbolic of their fight against city planners who want to tear the church down.

5:22And perhaps this helps the church's anti-gentrification battle, but a memorial service for Private First Class Manuel Perez was held in the church on Sunday, February 13, 1949, after a procession had come down Green Street. Seven members of the American Legion Post 1017, which would be named after Manuel Perez, acted as pallbearers, while others from the Catholic Action Group considered it a deep honor to hold vigil over their fallen friend's remains in the church overnight.

5:55Manuel Perez attended Chicago's Goodrich Elementary School, but when the Great Depression hit, of course it affected his family like so many families across the nation, and his father lost his job. So his dad went back to Oklahoma to look for work, and he took young Manuel and then Manuel's grandmother with him. They moved back into his aunt's house, who also had 12 children of her own with her husband Adolf. So the house was crowded, but very full of love. And his Aunt Salome loved young Manuel.

6:27After he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1945, Aunt Salome looked at a portrait of Manuel Perez during a memorial event in 1946. And, you know, with tears in her eyes, she just stood there and told the crowd, What a good boy Manuel always was. He fought for our nation, for a better world. Eventually, young Manuel and his father and grandmother returned to Chicago, and this time they lived at 3511 West Roosevelt Road, which is just another big parking lot right now.

6:58But Manuel became known throughout his neighborhood as a great athlete. He would go on to co-found the area's Cyclistas Bicycle Club, and he was also a member of the community's Benito Juarez Social Club. Manuel was remembered as a good-natured, just active kid. You know, his peers gave him the nickname of Bullet because he was always on the go. He would later attend Crane Technical School in Chicago's near Westside. And then after graduation, he went to work for Best Foods, Inc. And, you know, his uncle Jesse worked there, and I believe his father did as well.

7:33His dad lists his employment as a maintenance man at a food processing plant in the 1940 census.

War Efforts

7:40But for the Perez family and for the nation itself, everything was about to change. We have to remember, this is 1940, and both Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany had opened hostilities throughout the Pacific and in Europe. So while the United States remained neutral, it was pretty obvious that war was coming. So President Roosevelt enacted the first peacetime draft on September 16th, 1940. Manuel went and registered with his local draft board at Chicago's Hull House. That's H-U-L-L.

8:11This is a community meeting spot for immigrants. And, you know, they attended social programs, educational, artistic programs as well. And I believe this is where Manuel met with the Benito Juarez Social Club. Now, the Hull House still stands today, although it's been moved from its original location. It is now the Jane Addams Hull House Museum. And hopefully they at least have a photo up of Manuel to honor his service and sacrifice. After Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, war was declared and Manuel

8:44was inducted into the army on January 9th, 1943.

Army Induction

8:49This was only a few days before Elmer Fryer, the 11th Airborne Division's other Medal of Honor recipient, joined the army. We do have a video on Elmer Fryer's life and story, which I'll link to down below. I highly recommend you give that a listen. Now, with his induction into the army, the 5'9'' Manuel Perez, weighing in at a whopping 142 pounds, became one of over 30,000 Americans of Mexican descent to serve in the military from Chicago during World War II.

9:20In the words of Chicago's Rafael Perez, there is hardly a family that does not have a father, brother, or sweetheart in active service. Now, Rafael was the director of Chicago's Mexican Civic Center in 1945, and he added, We are proud of our Mexican heritage and loyal to the United States. And that phrase describes Manuel Perez to a T. He was proud of his Mexican heritage and fiercely loyal to the United States. Manuel quickly volunteered for parachute duty,

9:51and he was sent down to historic Camp Toccoa, Georgia,

Parachute Training

9:53to join the newly forming 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and there he was assigned to Company A under Captain Ben Petrie. And if you've never visited Toccoa, I highly recommend you put that on your bucket list. The town itself is amazing, but there are two incredible museums there full of airborne history and wonderful volunteers. Of note, Camp Toccoa at Couragy just completed their restoration of one of the barracks that is now dedicated to Manuel Perez's 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

10:24Now, Manuel's assignment to Company A in 1943 means he was one of the first volunteers to arrive in Toccoa to join the newly forming 511th PIR. And as I've mentioned before, the acceptance standards for the 511th PIR were extremely high. Out of 13,000 volunteers, only 3,000 were initially accepted. And that number was further cut down to about 2,100. So let me walk you through that process to explain how this worked. Manuel Perez would have arrived at the train station in Toccoa,

10:57which is now the fabulous Couragy Military Museum. And he may have even been in the group that was greeted by Sergeant Joe Chitwood. And Chitwood stood before this group of fresh arrivals and he said, Before this war, I was a daredevil stuntman. I traveled all over the country performing in fairs and shows, crashing cars into flaming walls, and jumping them over impossible hurdles. And then Joe then added, I thought I was a pretty good man when I joined the paratroops. I was, but not anywhere near as good a man as I am now after one year in the paratroops.

11:31Sergeant Chitwood's words impressed the potential paratroopers. Now at this point, Manuel and the other fresh arrivals would have boarded trucks where they were taken to the camp, and then they were personally interviewed by either 1st Battalion's Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Laflame, or by Lieutenant Colonel Oren D. Hardrock Hogan himself, who was the regimental commander. And during these interviews, volunteers like Manuel would have had to stand there in their new GI underwear and answer questions that were designed to test their intelligence, courage, and their potential.

12:04Because Colonel Hogan only wanted the best of the best in his regiment, and he told his battalion commanders to weed out anyone who wouldn't measure up. Another qualification to enter the regiment was that you had to pass the Army's General Classification Test, so the AGCT, with a score of 110 or higher. And if you don't know, that is actually the same requirement for Officer Candidate School at the time. No wonder 3rd Battalion's Lieutenant Colonel Big Ed Lottie declared, The 511th Regiment probably contained the finest group of prospective soldiers of any regiment ever assembled in one unit.

12:42So Manuel Perez passed all of these tests, and he and his buddies began kind of a primer for airborne training there at Camp Toccoa, which of course included runs up and down Mount Curahee. And those runs were often led by Colonel Hogan himself, who ran cross-country at West Point. So during their morning runs, the colonel would run to the head of the column, and then several troopers just said he kept going. Manuel's A Company comrade, Sergeant David McGuire, said, That little wiry SOB would be on his way back down the mountain before most of us were halfway up.

13:16Sergeant McGuire then said that at that point, A Company was no longer in formation. It was just a mob, running every man for himself, trying to make it up the hill. So PT was a way of life for the volunteers in the 511th PIR, and Manuel Perez and his comrades would become some of the most physically fit soldiers in the United States Army. Their stay at Camp Toccoa would be very short, however. And in February, they headed for Camp McCall to join the new 11th Airborne Division. Under Major General Joseph May Swing, the 11th would become one of the most elite fighting forces in America's military in World War II.

13:53Now, I don't want to spend too much time on their stateside training, but I do want to say that Manuel Perez was almost bounced out of the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment. While they were at Camp McCall, Manuel's marksmanship scores were so low that the regiment considered kicking him out. However, with the help and guidance of some of the more experienced troopers in the regiment, Manuel turned things around and the regiment kept him, which was a decision that would affect the course of history in 1945. Now, speaking of history, one of the most pivotal moments in America's early airborne history was the historic Knollwood maneuvers held in December of 1943.

14:32This is where Manuel Perez and his fellow angels proved that an airborne division could successfully be deployed and then resupplied by air, which that saved the airborne as we know it. We have to remember that following Sicily's operation Husky, there were mixed feelings regarding the future of America's airborne arm. Some in America's leadership wanted to break up airborne divisions and create regimental combat teams, while others, of course, felt that an entire airborne division provided more flexibility for commanders,

15:03as well as the additional strength of the entire division moving into the theater of operation. So, if it wasn't for Manuel Perez's 11th Airborne Division during the Knollwood maneuvers, the future of the airborne would have looked very different during World War II than what we know it to be. After the Knollwood maneuvers, Manuel Perez was given leave to go home, so he boarded a train bound for Oklahoma City. Now, when Manuel had entered the army, his father and his grandmother had returned to Mexico, so they boarded a train to meet him there in the city,

15:34and the family all got together in the same one-story frame house that Manuel had been born in that belonged to his aunt and his uncle. Now, this could be when this famous photo was taken of Manuel, but I'm thinking it was likely taken at Camp McCall. But what you don't see in this photo, and what most people don't know, is that Manuel actually had a scar on his right cheek just below his eye. It was almost like a dimple when he smiled, and he smiled a lot. Everybody said that Manuel always had a big grin on his face.

16:05And during Christmas of 1943, Manuel had plenty of reasons to smile. The holidays provided a joyful reunion for the Perez family and their neighbors. I'm sure they attended Mass together, and while their circumstances were humble, the celebrations would be enriching and memorable. And they would have to be. This was the last time that Manuel's loved ones would ever see him alive. Following the holidays, Manuel returned to Camp McCall just in time to help pack up the division for their move down to Camp Polk, Louisiana.

16:36Here, the division underwent more training and exercises, and endured final War Department tests to see if they really were ready for combat. General Swing's troopers also got into plenty of fights with Camp Polk's armored units, and generally caused mischief in the area. Before his passing in 2019, I was able to speak with Colonel Stephen Cavanaugh, who as a young second lieutenant had joined Manuel Perez's A Company, but he actually arrived in December of 1942 at Camp Toccoa. I believe they might have been in the same platoon,

17:07but when I asked about the trouble that the 511s paratroopers were causing at Camp Polk, Steve just kind of laughed, and he said, Angels, we were not. But Manuel Perez was different. His buddies all said that he was generally quiet around camp and rarely joined in their shenanigans. However, when it came time for combat, this quiet little paratrooper could always be counted on to do the big jobs. Then, on April 15th, 1944, Manuel Perez and his fellow paratroopers were shockingly told

17:39to remove their jump wings, jump boots, uniforms, and patches. And if you know anything about paratroopers, this was insulting. While it was for security reasons, Manuel Perez's fellow A Company paratrooper, Private First Class Stephen Hedgedus said, A paratrooper's boots are his pride and joy, right up there with mom and patriotism. Stomp on his fingers, steal his girlfriend, but don't mess with his boots. One week later, on April 22nd, the entire 11th Airborne Division boarded trains

18:11destined for Camp Stoneman, California. Here, they made final phone calls home, filled out their GI insurance forms and their wills, and spent about two weeks being fattened for the kill, as one paratrooper said. One day, Manuel's A Company joined the regiment for a little hike on Camp Stoneman's road march area. Colonel Hogan had heard that a former unit had set the road march record, and of course he knew that his boys could do better. So, he led the regiment off one way, and they actually lapped another unit

18:42that had started before them out on the course. B Company's PFC Burt Marshall noted that Hogan got a good laugh when one of that unit's soldiers, who was sitting down rubbing his sore feet, you know, he stopped, and he's watching the 511th pass, and he shouted, Man, who is that crazy guy leading you all? He must really be crazy. So, Colonel Hogan got a good laugh, and of course he was proud of his boys because they ended up beating the former unit's record by nearly an hour. Manuel's 511th then sailed for New Guinea

19:12in May of 1944, and upon arrival, they discovered that those former orders to remove their jump wings and boots and everything were just completely pointless. The Japanese knew they were coming. When the 511th transports reached New Guinea, they were actually identified by Tokyo Rose on the radio, who said, Welcome to the 11th Airborne Division. We know where you are. You will never make it to New Guinea. D Company's PFC Elmer Hudson said, That sent chills up my spine.

19:43After five months of theater training on New Guinea, Manuel and the 511th PIR were finally committed to combat on Leyte in November of 1944.

Luzon Campaign

19:52Today I really want to focus on the Luzon campaign of 1945, but I will say that Leyte was just a horrendous campaign due to the monsoon conditions, the steep mountain heights that they were traveling through, the lack of food and supplies, and really just the vicious nature of jungle fighting against the Japanese. One angel said Leyte was a nightmare. The Japanese would attack their columns like ghosts in the darkness, and during one such attack on December 2nd,

20:23Manuel Perez and A Company were shocked when their highly respected company commander, Captain Thomas Brady of Whitestone, New York, was hit in the head. You know, again, Brady was loved by his men, and when asked who would carry their respected captain, you know, back through the jungle to a field hospital, every man in A Company volunteered. As the regiment continued westward and over the heights, it was actually a patrol from A Company that found the first evidence of the enemy's main supply trail

20:53that was running through the mountains, and we have to remember that this was one of the main reasons that the 11th Airborne Division was sent over the island. Yes, it was to destroy Japan's 16th and 26th Infantry Divisions, but it was also to break that supply line, which no other unit had been able to encounter and effectively move on because most of those other units were dependent on their motorized transportation, whereas General Swing said, my boys move on their legs.

21:26Now, I don't know if Manuel Perez was in this initial patrol from A Company that found the trail, but I do know that he was becoming highly respected as a very capable fighter on Leyte. During one engagement, while their patrol was withdrawing through a very narrow ravine, Manuel Perez volunteered to hold the rear, and his buddies remember watching him backing out of that draw, firing on the enemy so they could all move in front of him safely. They were all very impressed with this little paratrooper. Now, that draw that A Company was coming out of

21:58was actually only a short distance away from the ridge where Private Elmer Fryer would make his one-man stand and earn the Medal of Honor. In fact, these actions took place just a few days apart. So again, if you want to hear Elmer's story, we'll put the link to his video down below. But after more than 30 days of combat, the 11th Airborne Division finally came down from Leyte's Heights down to Ormoc Bay on Christmas Day of 1944. I Company's Staff Sergeant James Bull Hendry said,

22:29Most of us still walking were 30 to 40 pounds lighter than we had been a month earlier. Many had minor wounds, and we all had the GIs and jungle rot. G Company's David Webb said, Battles across Leyte produced a truly pitiful-looking bunch of paratroopers. Exhausted, sick, and wounded, we had done ourselves proud, but we were too tired to realize it. Or, too tired to give a damn, might be more fitting. Emmanuel Perez and his fellow angels

22:59had done themselves proud. They took everything the jungle and the enemy could throw at them, and they came through victorious. As Regimental Sergeant Major Frederick Thomas declared, the 511th PIR withstood combat experiences in the mountains that would have ruined an ordinary army unit. The angels were told they had eliminated 5,760 of the enemy during just five weeks of fighting, but the 457th Parachute Field Artillery Battalions,

23:30Captain John Connable pointed out that that count of enemy dead was probably low because of the nature of the terrain. Once final reports came in, the tired 11th Airborne was told that the Japanese had lost 45 soldiers for every fallen angel. But those victories had come at a cost. Manuel's 511th PIR was down to 60% strength, and Regimental Surgeon Doc Wallace Chambers estimated that their remaining men needed six weeks to recover,

24:01and that's all they would get. The battle for Luzon was about to begin, and the angels were needed. At this point, the 11th Airborne Division was attached to and really basically made up the U.S. 8th Army under General Robert Eichelberger. This was for Operation Mike 6, and Eichelberger had been tasked by General Douglas MacArthur with pushing up towards Manila from the south, while U.S. 6th Army continued pushing down towards the city from the north. So to achieve this goal,

24:31Manuel Perez and the 511th PIR would jump on Tegaitai Ridge on February 3rd, 1945. The rest of the division had been pushing towards the ridge after landing amphibiously at Naksubu. During A Company's drop on the ridge, PFC Leroy Pop Franklin looked up to check his canopy, and he saw Private William X-Line, you know, fighting in their streamer. So, you know, Pop, thinking quickly, of course, reached out to grab Bill and a big bear hug, and they both rode Pop's canopy down to the ground.

25:03Now, I don't know if many of us saw this happen, but General Douglas MacArthur may have. He was actually flying around in his personal transport just to watch the angels drop on the ridge. Now, once on the ground, the angels began pushing straight for the city, and they had to do it fast because, you know, of course, the Japanese were beginning their vicious rampage throughout the city. You know, as Manuel Perez and A Company were pushing into Manila, you know, they were going into the city, and then they were passing just these long columns

25:34of Filipino refugees that were fleeing the city. You know, A Company's Sergeant Steve Hegedus says he remembers, you know, watching these two little kids go past, and then the little boy stopped and then, you know, ran back, and the boy ran to this Filipino who was dead in the street, and, you know, and he begged the man to get up, get up, and then Steve said he watched the little girl who must have been the boy's sister, you know, then run back as well, and, of course, then she looks at the man's face

26:07and just collapses on him and starts sobbing, and Steve said it was their father. The fleeing refugees told A Company just unbelievable stories of Japanese cruelty. Everything from killing babies with bayonets to raping women and girls of all ages to setting houses on fire with families still inside, just horrific massacres and so on. You know, just one example that stands out to me is when A Company was, you know, walking through, you know,

26:39some of those lines of refugees, and this Filipina mother came up to them, and she's pulling a wagon, and, you know, she's crying, and she's asking them for help, and, you know, Tech Sergeant Edmund Harris, you know, he said, I remember looking down into the wagon, and I saw a little girl whose nose, mouth, you know, just her jaw had been shot away, and, you know, they asked the mother what happened, and, you know, just with tears in her eyes, she says, Japanese machine gun.

27:09So, A Company, you know, directs her to the rear to where the medics are, but the medics said the next day that that little girl had died. You know, A Company was then shocked to hear that that mother had already lost a sister and two other children to the Japanese rampage going on in the city. I do want to say that despite the hells they were fighting through, the angels were actually, you know, greeted by the Filipino people as liberators, and, you know, as they passed through these towns,

27:40you know, there were just crowds would gather, and there'd be impromptu bands thrown together to, you know, play marches and so forth, and, you know, the angels were given wine in one city, but then also fresh fruit and eggs and, you know, chickens, just, you know, the Filipino people were just saying, thank you for coming to help us. You know, A Company, Steve Hedges said that, you know, as they were going through one town, he said the whole town came out to greet us. Who were the first Americans they had seen in four years? Hail the liberators.

28:11The euphoria of new freedom and the promise of a better life was in the air. We were the symbol of better days ahead. But those better days were still far ahead, and the angels' campaign to retake Manila would be bloody. The 11th Airborne Division had to face and then destroy Japan's Genko line. You know, my grandpa once told me that this was just a monstrosity of defensive fortifications. It was a line that ran along the city's southern edge. You know, and along this line, the enemy had constructed, you know,

28:42cement pillboxes and placed near their large guns. And this included naval guns that they had taken off the sunken ships out of Manila Bay. So they bring in the naval guns, and then they're bringing in these anti-aircraft guns. And, of course, they're all leveling them on the horizontal. And then there's smaller pillboxes and emplacements that are manned with machine guns, and then other positions that are manned by Japanese soldiers with, you know, grenades, and everybody's told to, of course, fight to the death. The angels actually faced so many of these big guns

29:14during their push into Manila that the 188 Glider Infantry Regiments, Captain Leo Crawford, you know, Leo had actually been in the 511th PAR in my grandpa's D company. But he got into a little bit of a boxing match stateside, so General Swing sent him over to the gliders as kind of a punishment.

29:35But Leo gets on the radio, and all these big guns are going off, and he says, you know, tell Admiral Halsey that he can stop looking for the Japanese fleet. It is dug in on Nichols Field. But when you throw in, you know, the landmines and the interconnecting tunnels and the snipers and just, you know, this fight for an airborne division, which was already under strength and depleted by their battles for Leyte, you know, it was just an incredible accomplishment that the angels succeeded in achieving.

30:06And you can see why so many of the angels considered Manila as one of their toughest battles. You know, and it was starting to prove costly. After 10 days of fighting, Manuel Perez's regiment had been decimated. PFC Kenneth Hahn noted, Up around Paranaque and Nichols Field in Fort McKinley, we had over 300 killed and 800 wounded in 10 days. At one time, the regimental strength was 900 men, only about 40%. Now, some companies in the 511th were approaching 70% casualties.

30:38When Nichols Field was declared secure on February 12th, H Company's original complement of 121 was now down to just 49. Captain John Coulter of 3rd Battalion's HQ, he said that there were less than 150 riflemen in three rifle companies. And this was a division-wide problem. You know, again, let's go back to Captain Leo Crawford of the 188th. And, you know, he said, Able Company was down so far that when 1st Lt. Woodrow Fitch took command,

31:11he thought it was just a platoon he was seeing. Fitch was shocked to find out that that was all that was left of A Company. Everyone else was gone. But General Swing's remaining troopers kept pushing forward, and their next objective was Fort William McKinley. And on February 13th, 1945, the divisions 187th, 188th, and 511th regiments all moved to attack with their supporting artillery units. 3rd Platoon's 22-year-old lead scout,

Fort McKinley Battle

31:41Private First Class Manuel Perez, was ahead of A511's main body, and he was moving forward alongside PFC Ansel Upton when they came out of the jungle and out into the open fields heading towards Fort McKinley. And then Manuel was out in front, just surprised no one. A Company's Private Donald Noel of Coal Center, Pennsylvania, he said, Manuel was always out front. He seemed unaware of anything but the job of killing Japs. Now, 2nd Lieutenant Theodore Bon,

32:12or Ted, he was 3rd Platoon's CO at the time, and he said, Manuel's detection of the enemy was very sharp, and his reaction with weapons was very quick and effective. But after 43 days of combat, Manuel Perez was tired. He told fellow scout Ansel Upton that morning, I'm tired of all this killing and the war. I want to go home to Chicago. I feel I'm going to either be wounded today or be killed. One way or the other, I'm going home.

32:43He was wrong though. Private First Class Manuel Perez was about to make history. As A Company pressed towards Fort McKinley, Perez noticed a heavily fortified pillbox that threatened the company's advance, and then he saw others behind it. Some of these were these large pillboxes. One of them was 15 feet high, and others were smaller ones that were covered with logs with anywhere between one and four Japanese soldiers in each of those. And again, the fields around Fort McKinley

33:13provided very little cover. So at this point, A Company is crawling through the grass while the Japanese are firing their big guns over their heads. So Manuel saw those pillboxes with their accompanying guns. He grew concerned for his buddies, and he thought, what's going to happen when they finally are spotted out in the grass? One of his A Company buddies said, hell, those Japs are good with their automatics. Thinking of his fellow angels, Manuel Perez rushed right into action, and the platoon leader, Ted Bond,

33:43he actually said, I heard someone yell, there goes Perez. And he turns to look, and he says, I saw him coming on a dead run. I yelled for him to get down, which had no effect on his concentration. First, Manuel shoots and kills five Japanese soldiers out in the open as he's running forward. You know, and then he rushes the first pillbox and drops in a grenade. And then he moved to the next and the next, dodging enemy fire. And, you know, he keeps dropping grenades into these firing slots and the overhead vents as he moves

34:14from one emplacement to another. Manuel would do this 12 times, running through the open from pillbox to pillbox. And the whole time, you know, A Company's third platoon is, you know, watching him do this and they're doing their best to provide covering fire. The platoon would actually move up and secure a position once Manuel had dropped in his grenades and cleaned the pillbox. And, you know, then they would follow him from pillbox to pillbox. But of course, the Japanese could see what Manuel Perez was doing and they're starting to focus their fire on him.

34:45Sergeant Max Pollack, who was there that day, he said, the enemy slugs were cutting the breeze all around. But Manuel didn't seem to care. This guy was one tough Chicano. The only time Manuel stopped was actually to run back to third platoon's position to gather up more grenades so that he could then rush back and continue taking out pillboxes. Well, I mean, I guess he did stop once to shout to Lieutenant Bond, you know, watch out when a Japanese grenade

35:15had landed near his head. And Ted moved right then and he said, you know, Perez probably saved my life. Now, at this point, this is when Manuel reaches the big bunker where he could see two .50 caliber machine gun, machine guns sticking out of the firing slots. And, you know, and of course he thought about how much damage those guns could do to his buddies. So third platoon watched Manuel, you know, flip the spoons off two grenades and then throw them, you know, get them into the firing slits. And then Manuel

35:45climbs up on top and he drops in two white phosphorus grenades down into into the pillbox itself. Now those go off and Japanese and the surrounding areas, you know, start, you know, firing Emmanuel who's now lying on his stomach on top of the pillbox. So as smoke starts to pour out of the vents, you know, third platoon is watching this and Manuel just kind of turns his head to look at him, give them a big old smile and just does the, you know, I'm okay. Manuel then attacks the smaller pillbox right next to the big one.

36:16This would be his 12th position of the day. Manuel fires his M1 Garand right into the firing slot, killing four Japanese and then he takes another grenade and throws it inside and this just really kicks off the hornet's nest. The combined enemy crews start withdrawing through the rear of this position but Manuel is ready for him. He drops down and he shoots four of the Japanese so Manuel reloads and then he kills four more Japanese but he's so busy firing

36:47that he fails to notice that there's another Japanese soldier charging him. So Sergeant Max Pollack back in third platoon's position shouts, you know, watch out! And, you know, Manuel looks over just in time and reacts as the Japanese had thrown his rifle with the bayonet towards Manuel who blocks the rifle with his own rifle which of course knocks his gun out of his hand. So Manuel reaches down and grabs the Japanese rifle which had stuck in the ground kind of like a javelin

37:17and he picks it up and he kills that charging Japanese soldier with his own weapon. Manuel then kills two more Japanese soldiers with the Japanese rifle's bayonet and then he uses the rifle's butt to club two more Japanese soldiers to death. Manuel Perez then runs into that pillbox to bayonet the last Japanese soldier inside. So Manuel Perez this tough little Mexican American from Oklahoma and Chicago killed 18 Japanese soldiers while taking this last

37:48pillbox and sometimes you'll see that reported when stories of Manuel Perez are told but 18 is nowhere near the total count of the day. A Company Sergeant Max Polak pointed out among Manuel's grenades, rifles, and bayonet the count of dead Japs was more like 75. It should come as no surprise that 1st Battalion's Major Henry Burgess immediately gave orders for a Silver Star commendation to be written up when he heard about Manuel's actions at Fort McKinley.

38:18However, that commendation came back as rejected two days later and I quote they were told the quota of Silver Stars has been filled. Well, you can imagine how angry Major Burgess who was a tough Wyoming cowboy was. He said, Indignant, I went over the site of the fight that Perez had waged and personally wrote the citation and prepared maps to support the action, obtained several corroborating accounts of the soldiers who saw what he had done, and recommended that Manuel be

38:49granted the Congressional Medal of Honor. Well, General Swing approved and he forwarded the supporting documents, and on February 28th, 1945, just 10 days after his one-man assault on the enemy's fortifications, Manuel wrote to his uncle who was now private, Jesse Perez, also serving in the Pacific Theater. But Manuel wrote, Uncle, they are putting me in for a medal and it's not the Purple Heart. You will be surprised how big it's going to be.

39:19Now, five days after Manuel writes this letter, the 11th Airborne performed their famous raid on the Los Banos internment camp, where they rescued over 2,100 men, women, and children from behind enemy lines on February 23rd, 1945. This is one of the most historic rescues of World War II, and if you have not yet watched our video on the raid, I'll put a link down below for you. But most who have heard about the raid on Los Banos know that it was the 511th PIR's Company B which jumped on the

39:49camp. What a lot of people forget is that the rest of 1st Battalion came across Laguna de Bay in the Amtraks. That includes Manuel Perez and A Company which under the command of Lieutenant Harold Fraker actually moved to block any enemy movement on the east side of the camp. And then once things really got moving, Manuel Perez and A Company joined the rest of the rescuers on the shoreline and then they all boarded the Amtraks and crossed

40:20the lake back to Mamatid. So Manuel Perez was actually

Final Mission and Legacy

40:24one of the rescuers of Los Banos. Three weeks later on March 14th 1945, Manuel Perez and A Company were ordered to help take Santo Tomas. And this is Santo Tomas the city not the prison camp. The prison camp had already been liberated back in February. Now codenamed Gypsy Red on the Angels radio net at 950 Able Company's two platoon patrol moved towards Santo Tomas from the railroad crossing to the east and I'm sure you're

40:54going to be very shocked to hear that Manuel Perez was right out front. As one newspaper put it, Manuel fought his way out of many scrapes in the Philippines and always went back for more by volunteering for patrol duty. Now the southern half of Santo Tomas had been bombed the day before but the northern half was relatively untouched. In addition, the morning's artillery barrages had landed mostly in the south so Manuel was the first angel to enter the city and of course

41:25again when he does, finds those two Japanese soldiers, they open fire on him, he kills them, and those two Japanese soldiers had friends so they open up on Manuel Perez and Manny's friend, PFC Earl Redisk, was with Manuel at this point and Manuel turns to Earl and says,