Anthony Peter Damato

He covered a grenade to shield two comrades in their foxhole

Anthony Peter Damato was born on 28 March 1922 in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. He attended local schools and worked as a truck driver before enlisting in the Marine Corps on 8 January 1942. Posted to Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in May, he volunteered for a special landing party during Operation Torch. On 8 November 1942, he helped seize ships and the port at Arzew, Algeria, earning promotion for his conduct. He returned to the United States in March 1943 and departed for the Pacific later that year.

Damato earned a posthumous Medal of Honor on Engebi Island, Eniwetok Atoll, during the night of 19 and 20 February 1944. A corporal with the 22nd Marines, he shared a foxhole with two companions in a thinly held defensive perimeter. When an undetected Japanese soldier threw in a grenade, Damato tried to find it in the darkness. Recognizing the imminent danger, he covered it with his body. The explosion killed him but spared both comrades.

His mother received his posthumous Medal of Honor in Shenandoah on 9 April 1945. Initially buried on Kiririan Island in the Marshall Islands, his remains were later reinterred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. The destroyer USS Damato was named in his honor.

Medal of Honor citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with an assault company in action against enemy Japanese forces on Engebi Island, Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands, on the night of 19–20 February 1944. Highly vulnerable to sudden attack by small, fanatical groups of Japanese still at large despite the efficient and determined efforts of our forces to clear the area, Cpl. Damato lay with two comrades in a large foxhole in his company's defense perimeter which had been dangerously thinned by the forced withdrawal of nearly half of the available men. When one of the enemy approached the foxhole undetected and threw in a hand grenade, Cpl. Damato desperately groped for it in the darkness. Realizing the imminent peril to all three and fully aware of the consequences of his act, he unhesitatingly flung himself on the grenade and, although instantly killed as his body absorbed the explosion, saved the lives of his two companions. Cpl. Damato's splendid initiative, fearless conduct, and valiant sacrifice reflect great credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his comrades.