🇺🇲 A Salute to Barney F. Hajiro.. a Hero Remembered:

 🇺🇲 A Salute to Barney F. Hajiro.. a Hero Remembered:

In March 1943, Hajiro volunteered to be part of the Army's all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team.  

The 442nd was mostly made up of second-generation Americans citizens of Japanese descent from Hawaii and the mainland.

  The unit was sent to Europe and in May 1944 fought the Germans in Italy, north of Rome. From there the 442nd was redeployed to France.

On October 19, 1944, the 442nd was fighting near Bruyères and Biffontaine in eastern France. 

 PFC Hajiro, of Company I, repeatedly distinguished himself in battle. 

He exposed himself to enemy fire while assisting an Allied attack on October 19, and three days later he and a comrade ambushed an 18-man enemy patrol. 

On October 29, during the rescue of the "Lost Battalion", which had been surrounded by German forces in the Vosges Mountains, he single-handedly destroyed two German machine gun emplacements. 

Barney was then shot in the shoulder and wrist leaving his left arm partially paralyzed.

 He was able to rejoin the 442nd in Monte Carlo, but was barred from further combat duty. 

He was then sent back to the United States to recover.

PFC Hajiro was recommended for the Medal of Honor for his actions in October 1944. 

He received the Distinguished Service Cross and the World War II Victory Medal before he was honorably discharged.

In 1948, he was awarded the Military Medal by the British government for his part in rescuing the Lost Battalion. 

A 1990s review of service records for Asian Americans who had received the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II led to Hajiro’s award being upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

After the war Barney returned to Hawaii. In a ceremony at the White House on June 21, 2000, he was presented with the Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton.

 Four years later, in 2004, the French awarded Hajiro the Légion d’honneur. Barney passed on January 21, 2011 in Waipahu, Hawaii at the age of 94.