REFERENCE TITLE: PFC Servin; medal of honor

State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-first Legislature First Regular Session 2013

HCM 2008

Introduced by Representatives Miranda, Cardenas, Gabaldón, Gallego, Gowan, Smith: Allen, Barton, Borrelli, Coleman, Contreras, Dial, Escamilla, Hernández, Kavanagh, Larkin, Lesko, Mendez, Mesnard, Mitchell, Olson, Pierce J, Pratt, Shope, Wheeler

 

A concurrent MEMORIAL

 

urging the united states department of defense and the united states army to consider the medal of honor for pfc ignacio servin.

 

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

To the Secretaries of the United States Department of Defense and the United States Army:

      Your memorialist respectfully represents:

      Whereas, Private First Class (PFC) Ignacio Servin, an American soldier of Mexican descent, received a Silver Star award on August 18, 2003 for gallantry in action in September 1944 while serving with Company A, 154^th Combat Engineer Battalion on Peleliu in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations during military operations against an enemy of the United States; and

      Whereas, without regard for his own personal safety, PFC Servin volunteered to crawl approximately 400 feet and destroy an enemy ammunition cache located in a tunnel, denying the enemy the use of this ammunition; and

Whereas, PFC Servin and another volunteer descended a hill by crawling down it with only 24 pounds of explosives and one rifle.  After arriving at the entrance to the tunnel, they set off the explosives and destroyed the ammunition site, denying the enemy any resupply of ammunition.  PFC Servin's heroic actions contributed to the destruction of the enemy's defense of Peleliu Island and saved the lives of hundreds of American soldiers and Marines; and

Whereas, PFC Servin's courageous act of volunteering for this extremely difficult and dangerous mission demonstrates his exemplary patriotism and bravery, particularly in light of the fact that Japanese soldiers were entrenched in well-fortified caves from which they had gun sight of any incoming American soldiers; and 

Whereas, this dangerous mission occurred in the main area of Japanese resistance, where the worst of the fighting took place in a pocket of the Umurbogrol Mountain or "Bloody Nose Ridge" as the soldiers called it.  This mission occurred in late September, a few days after the first Marines had been decimated.  PFC Servin clearly disregarded the great degree of danger and risk to his own life and opted to protect his comrades from the enemy.

Wherefore your memorialist, the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring, prays:

1.  That the United States Department of Defense acknowledge PFC Ignacio Servin's exemplary heroism by upgrading the Silver Star granted to him in 2003 to the Medal of Honor.

2.  That in accordance with Public Law 107-107, Division A, Title V, Section 552, the United States Army conduct a detailed review and examination of PFC Servin's military records during the battle of Peleliu in 1944 for the purpose of considering an award of the Medal of Honor for his actions on that day.

3.  That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Memorial to the Secretary of the United States Department of Defense and the Secretary of the United States Army.