Captain Jose Cabalfin Calugas was born on December 29, 1907 in Leon, Iloilo, Philippines. He joined the Philippine Scouts in March 1930, an army of Filipino soldiers commanded by American Army officers. He attended basic training in Oklahoma and returned to the Philippines to serve as a mess sergeant in the 24th Artillery Regiment. He was transferred to the 88th Field Artillery and after the attack on Pearl Harbor was ordered to the Bataan peninsula. His regiment was attacked in January 1942 and took on the brunt of the Japanese assault. His heroic actions during that attack earned him the first Filipino American Medal of Honor recipient of World War II.
According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website, his heroic actions of that day were: “A battery gun position was bombed and shelled by the enemy until one gun was out of commission and all the cannoneers were killed or wounded. Sergeant Calugas, a mess sergeant of another battery, voluntarily and without orders ran 1,000 yards across the shell-swept area to the gun position. There he organized a volunteer squad which placed the gun back in commission and fired effectively against the enemy, although the position remained under constant and heavy Japanese artillery fire.”
He survived the Bataan Death March and eight months of captivity at Camp O’Donnell before escaping and joining a guerilla unit. On April 30, 1945 Calugas was finally given his Medal of Honor. After the war he accepted a commission in the U.S. Army and became a U.S. citizen. He retired from the Army in 1957 with the rank of Captain and moved to Tacoma, Washington with his family. He died on January 18, 1998 at the age of 90.
Photo courtesy of the National WWII Museum
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