Marine Private Hector Cafferata earned the Medal of Honor during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in 1950. Cafferata singlehandedly defended a portion of a line that stretched more than three miles.
The commanding officer assigned to lead the defense of that line was William Earl Barber. When ordered to fall back, Barber realized doing so would leave more than 8,000 nearby Marines trapped and instead “chose to risk loss of his command rather than sacrifice more men.”
Although wounded in the leg early in the battle, Barber remained on the line and at times, was moved up and down the line on a stretcher in order to direct the defenses and motivate his men in the face of a near insurmountable force.
For six days, in below zero weather, Barber led from the front as wave after wave of hostile troops charged the line. In the end, more than 1,000 hostile enemy lay dead along the hastily constructed defenses. Of the 220 Marines under Barber’s command only 82 would walk away from the line.
For his “profound faith and courage, great personal valor, and unwavering fortitude,” Barber was awarded the Medal of Honor on August 20, 1952 in a White House ceremony led by President Truman. Three months later, Cafferata would receive his award.
Barber would again deploy in 1969 to Vietnam. In 1970, after thirty years of service, he retired from the military. In 2002, after battling bone marrow cancer, Barber passed away at the age of 82. The following month, on May 22, he was buried in Section 66 at Arlington National Cemetery. He is one of five #MOH recipients buried in that section.
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