Braxton Taylor
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. military to remove diversity-related content in accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs across the federal government. Hegseth’s order reportedly gave the Pentagon a deadline of Wednesday, March 5, to complete the task, but it looks as though the hasty effort had the unwanted side effect of erasing some of America’s greatest heroes — including at least one Medal of Honor recipient from World War II.
According to The Associated Press, images of Col. Paul Tibbets and the Enola Gay, the pilot and aircraft that first dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, were found in a database of 26,000 pieces of content flagged for removal, in all likelihood because their files included the word “gay.” Content related to the Tuskegee airmen, the storied Black fighter pilots who helped pave the way for desegregation in the U.S. military, also appeared in the database despite the public outcry over their removal from Air Force training materials and subsequent reversal in January.
And among those files flagged for removal was a photograph of Pfc. Harold Gonsalves, who received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.
Gonsalves was born into a Mexican-American family in Alameda, California, on Jan. 28, 1926. He spent his boyhood days there and was, by all accounts, an excellent student who was active in his school’s extracurricular activities. But the young man never finished high school. Instead, he dropped out during his junior year to start working as a clerk for the local Montgomery Ward, one of America’s oldest and then-most successful retail chains.
The United States entered World War II when Gonsalves was just 15 years old. He was barely 17 when he joined the Marine Corps Reserve in May 1943. Less than one month later, he was called up to active duty. He became a cannoneer with the Marine Corps artillery, and before the year’s end, he was shipping out to the Pacific Theater. After joining his fellow artillerymen in the 22nd Marines, he first saw action capturing the island of Engebi during the Battle of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. From there, Gonsalves and the 22nd captured the Perry Islands and Kwajalein.
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Like the rest of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps forces in the Pacific, Gonsalves’ island-hopping campaign continued as the combined American and Allied forces pushed the Japanese back toward their home islands. Their next stop was Guam, the largest of the Marianas, where some 22,000 Japanese troops and 40 tanks were waiting for them across 212 square miles. After almost three weeks of fighting in the dense jungle and driving rain between July and August 1944, Guam was finally liberated.
Gonsalves was then sent to Guadalcanal, which had been captured by the Allies in February 1943. In November 1944, he was attached to the 6th Marine Division, joining Battery L, 4th Battalion, 15th Marine Regiment. It was with the 15th Marines that he landed on Okinawa on April 1, 1945. The largest amphibious assault of the war in the Pacific, he was one of 183,000 combat troops to fight on the island, facing down more than 110,000 entrenched Japanese troops and conscripts. It was the last stop before a full-scale invasion of mainland Japan.
Gonsalves was a forward observer for the battalion, directing fire toward the enemy’s mountain stronghold on the Motobu Peninsula, amid a hail of rifle fire, grenades and mortars. As the Marines advanced, the batteries needed to move closer to the front line to provide deadlier, more accurate artillery fire. Along with another Marine, he followed one of his officers up a hill to lay down telephone lines so they could communicate with Marines farther back.
As the group approached the front, a Japanese grenade landed in their midst. Without hesitation or reservation, Gonsalves threw himself on it. He absorbed the full blast and fragmentation, saving his comrades who all emerged unharmed.
For his actions to protect his fellow Marines, President Harry S. Truman awarded him a posthumous Medal of Honor, which was presented to his family in San Francisco on June 19, 1946.
“Stouthearted and indomitable,” his Medal of Honor citation read, “Private First Class Gonsalves readily yielded his own chances of survival [so] that his fellow Marines might carry on the relentless battle against the fanatic Japanese and his cool decision, prompt action, and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of certain death reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service.”
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