Medal of Honor Day: Alfredo Gonzalez
“No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
Wednesday, March 25, 2020, is the national recognition of Medal of Honor Day. Here in Texas, we have always acknowledged our Medal of Honor recipients, and honor them as frequently as we can. That’s one reason why the Texas Veterans Land Board named five of its nine Veterans Homes across the state after Texans who received the highest military honor our country can give. One of these, Alfredo Gonzalez, is the namesake for the Veterans Home in McAllen. Read more to find out his story.
Alfredo “Freddy” Gonzalez joined the Marine Corps from his home in Edinburg in 1965, shortly after he graduated from high school. He had always wanted to be a Marine, reminding his mother of that each time they watched a John Wayne movie at the town theater from the time he was five years old.
By the time he was 21 years old, he was a seasoned non-commissioned officer. He had served a tour in Vietnam previously and had a comfortable position as an instructor at Camp Lejeune. However, he heard that a platoon of soldiers, including men he’d led before leaving Vietnam, had been ambushed and all killed. Gonzalez believed that had he been there, he would have made a difference in getting those men home. He then requested to return to combat and returned to Vietnam to lead troops.
In Huế, he led a platoon of soldiers in a firefight that lasted several days, and he was determined that his men would make it home to their loved ones. His platoon was in a no-win situation, pinned down in a bad position while being attacked by the Vietnamese. Gonzalez personally saved his men through aggressive action, including using anti-tank weapons to attack enemy defenses and refused medical care after fragment wounds of his own. He directed his men throughout the five-day battle and succumbed to his injuries. For his bravery, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, one of the first Mexican-Americans in that rarified fraternity.
The state of Texas and the United States have both recognized him in multiple ways, demonstrating his importance to Texas, to the country and to his fellow Hispanic-Americans. He is the namesake for the McAllen Texas State Veterans Home, and in 1995, one of the Navy’s most advanced warships was named after him. USS Alfredo Gonzalez (DDG-66), a guided-missile destroyer, the first modern warship named for a Mexican-American, is now serving with the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet.
Rarely is a ship named after a Marine, much less someone who never served as an officer, but SGT Gonzalez was a Marine’s Marine, whose men knew he would take care of them, and whose loyalty never wavered. The Texas Veterans Land Board salutes this Medal of Honor recipient for the 2020 National Medal of Honor Day, and thanks him and his family for the ultimate sacrifice.
