Joseph W. Ozbourn

That final grenade sacrifice saved four comrades under fire.

Joseph William Ozbourn was born on 24 October 1919 in Herrin, Illinois. He attended school in Buckner and worked for the Old Ben Coal Corporation in West Frankfort before enlisting in the Marine Corps on 30 October 1943. He served as a private and Browning automatic rifleman with the 1st Battalion, 23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division during the Second World War.

During the fighting on Tinian in July 1944, Ozbourn's platoon was clearing Japanese dugouts and pillboxes. A blast wounded him and four nearby Marines while he held an armed grenade. Unable to throw it safely, he covered it with his body, saving his comrades at the cost of his own life.

Ozbourn received the Medal of Honor posthumously. He is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Medal of Honor citation

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a Browning automatic rifleman serving with the 1st Battalion, 23d Marines, 4th Marine Division, during the battle for enemy Japanese-held Tinian Island, Marianas Islands, 30 July 1944. As a member of a platoon assigned the mission of clearing the remaining Japanese troops from dugouts and pillboxes along a treeline, Pvt.

Ozbourn, flanked by two men on either side, was moving forward to throw an armed hand grenade into a dugout when a terrific blast from the entrance severely wounded the four men and himself. Unable to throw the grenade into the dugout and with no place to hurl it without endangering the other men, Pvt. Ozbourn unhesitatingly grasped it close to his body and fell upon it, sacrificing his own life to absorb the full impact of the explosion, but saving his comrades.

His great personal valor and unwavering loyalty reflect the highest credit upon Pvt. Ozbourn and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.