Fred Faulkner Lester

Dragged a wounded Marine to cover despite his mortal wounds.

Fred Faulkner Lester was born in Downers Grove, Illinois, on 29 April 1926, a son of Frederick William and Minnie Viola Lester. He grew up on Fairview Avenue and attended Downers Grove High School. Leaving school before graduation, he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve in November 1943, aged seventeen.

Following recruit training at Farragut, Idaho, he became a seaman second class in January 1944. He then attended the Hospital Corps School in San Diego and received field medical training at Camp Elliott. As a hospital apprentice first class he went to the Pacific with the 1st Battalion, 22nd Marines, 6th Marine Division. His assignment placed him beside infantrymen during the costly assault on Okinawa.

On 8 June 1945 he saw a wounded Marine lying beyond the American lines. He crawled towards the casualty under enemy fire and was hit while attempting to reach him. Although wounded again, Lester dragged the Marine to a protected position. He recognized that his own injuries were fatal and refused to divert the available assistance to himself. Instead, he directed two Marines in treating the man he had rescued and in caring for two other wounded men. He died before he could be evacuated, having continued his work as a corpsman after being mortally wounded.

The Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously. Rear Admiral F. L. Conklin presented it to Lester's parents at Downers Grove High School on 30 May 1946. His other decorations included two Purple Hearts. Lester was buried at Clarendon Hills Cemetery in Darien, Illinois. His name was subsequently given to a local school and to the destroyer escort USS Lester, sponsored by his mother and commissioned in 1957.