Raymond H. Cooley

Silencing a machine gun and shielding his squad

Raymond Henry Cooley earned the Medal of Honor near Lumboy, Luzon, in the Philippines on February 24, 1945. A staff sergeant in Company B, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, he advanced alone against enemy machine-gun positions.

When the enemy threw back his first grenade, Cooley held a second briefly before throwing it, destroying a gun and its crew. His squad joined him as he advanced toward another position. During a close encounter with charging enemy soldiers, he had an armed grenade with no safe place to throw it. Cooley covered the grenade with his body to protect his comrades, suffering severe wounds. His example helped inspire the unit to capture the positions.

Born in Dunlap, Tennessee, on May 7, 1914, Cooley survived his battlefield wounds. President Harry S. Truman presented the medal at the White House on August 23, 1945. Cooley died in Jasper, Tennessee, on March 12, 1947, and is buried at Cumberland View Cemetery in Kimball. His medal is held by the Tennessee State Museum.

Medal of Honor citation

He was a platoon guide in an assault on a camouflaged entrenchment defended by machine guns, rifles, and mortars. When his men were pinned down by two enemy machine guns, he voluntarily advanced under heavy fire to within 20 yards of one of the guns and attacked it with a hand grenade. The enemy, however, threw the grenade back at him before it could explode. Arming a second grenade, he held it for several seconds of the safe period and then hurled it into the enemy position, where it exploded instantaneously, destroying the gun and crew. He then moved toward the remaining gun, throwing grenades into enemy foxholes as he advanced. Inspired by his actions, one squad of his platoon joined him. After he had armed another grenade and was preparing to throw it into the second machine-gun position, six enemy soldiers rushed at him. Knowing he could not dispose of the armed grenade without injuring his comrades, because of the intermingling in close combat of the men of his platoon and the enemy in the melee which ensued, he deliberately covered the grenade with his body and was severely wounded as it exploded. By his heroic actions, SSgt. Cooley not only silenced a machine gun and so inspired his fellow soldiers that they pressed the attack and destroyed the remaining enemy emplacements, but also, in complete disregard of his own safety, accepted certain injury and possible loss of life to avoid wounding his comrades.