Years of service 1950 - 1951 | Service number 29040479 Rank Private first class | |
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Anthony Thomas Kahoʻohanohano (1930 – September 1, 1951) was an American combat soldier who was killed in action on September 1, 1951 during the Korean War. He became a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor.
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Early life and family
A native of Maui, Hawaii, Kahoʻohanohano was the son of a police officer and one of seven siblings, 6 brothers and 1 sister. He lived in Wailuku and played football and basketball at St. Anthony's School for Boys (now known as St. Anthony High School) before graduating in 1949. All six of the Kahoʻohanohano brothers served in the U.S. military: Anthony and three others in the active duty Army, one in the Marine Corps, and one in the National Guard.
Distinguished Service Cross
By September 1, 1951, he was serving in Korea as a private first class with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. On that day, near Chup'a-ri, he was in charge of a machine gun squad tasked with supporting another company. When a numerically superior enemy force launched an attack, he and his squad withdrew to a more defensible position. Although wounded in the shoulder, Kahoʻohanohano ordered his men to hold their ground while he gathered ammunition and returned to their original post. From that position, he single-handedly held off the enemy advance, fighting hand to hand with an entrenching tool after running out of ammunition, until he was killed. An American counter-attack later retook the position and found thirteen dead Communist Chinese soldiers around Kahoʻohanohano's body. For these actions, he was posthumously awarded the U.S. Army's second-highest military decoration, the Distinguished Service Cross.
The medal was presented to his parents in 1952 on Maui.
Medal of Honor recommendation
In the late 1990s, Kahoʻohanohano's brother, Abel Kahoʻohanohano, Sr., began an effort to have the Distinguished Service Cross upgraded. Abel's son George took up the cause after his father's death. After an unsuccessful Medal of Honor nomination in 2001 by Representative Patsy Mink, which was rejected by the Army, the family enlisted the help of Senator Daniel Akaka. Akaka nominated Kahoʻohanohano for the medal again, and in March 2009 was informed by Secretary of the Army Pete Geren that, after "careful, personal consideration", the request had been approved. A provision making the upgrade official was included in the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2647), signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009.
The Medal of Honor was formally presented to the Kahoʻohanohano family at a White House ceremony on May 2, 2011.
Military decorations and awards
A complete list of Kahoʻohanohano's decorations include the Medal of Honor, Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman Badge, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
Distinguished Service Cross
Kahoʻohanohano's official Distinguished Service Cross citation reads:
The President of the United States of America, under the provisions of the Act of Congress approved July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS (Posthumously) to
UNITED STATES ARMY
CITATION:
Medal of Honor
His Medal of Honor citation reads:
The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to
UNITED STATES ARMY
CITATION: