Lieutenant Daniel Inouye
On 21 April 1945, Lieutenant Daniel Inouye, of the US 442nd Regimental Combat Team, was leading his platoon on an assault against a heavily fortified ridge line when his platoon came under fire from three machine-gun nests. Inouye ordered his men to take cover while he climbed the hill to take on the nests alone. When Inouye charged the first machine-gun he was suddenly knocked down, hit in the stomach by machine-gun fire. Ignoring the hit, he got up and destroyed the bunker with a grenade before moving on to the next. After the second was knocked out, Inouye collapsed from blood loss, unable to stand, but there was still one more machine-gun nest. While his platoon distracted the third machine-gun, Daniel crawled up to the nest. He stood up and drew his arm back to throw a grenade. But a rifle grenade struck him in his right elbow and all but completely severed his arm. He pried the grenade from his severed hand and tossed it into the machine-gun bunker. He then took his Thompson submachine-gun into his left hand and raked the German survivors. Just then another bullet hit Daniel in the right leg and he fell down the hill. Some of his men rushed down the hill to help him, but he shouted to them, “Get back up that hill! Nobody called off the war!” For knocking out the three machine-gun bunkers, Lieutenant Daniel Inouye was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross, which was later upgraded to a Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton in 1991.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.ww2incolor.com/gallery/us-army/41033/lieutenant-daniel-inouye