Award Controversy
America’s greatest hero of WWI, then-corporal Alvin York, had gone on a mission with 16 other men, and when they came under murderous fire, he went on a solo lethal rampage. By the time it was over, he had single-handedly killed 28 Germans and convinced dozens more to surrender. For that feat, York was deservedly awarded the Medal of Honor. Private Marcelino Serna had gone off against the Germans not as part of a group, but on his own, and done pretty much what corporal York had pulled off. With his daring, intrepidity, and skill at arms, Serna had killed 26 German soldiers, and captured an additional 24.
On top of that, while escorting his prisoners back to friendly lines, an American sergeant stopped him and directed him to execute the captives, to which Serna replied with an emphatic “cabrón! No!” His heroics and moral courage should have earned him a Medal of Honor, but in the day’s rampant racism, that was not to be. Indeed, no minorities whatsoever were awarded the Medal of Honor during World War I. The powers that be decided that was too prestigious an award to bestow on a Mexican, let alone an illegal Mexican immigrant.
Serna’s commanding officer told him that he would never get the Medal of Honor, claiming that it was never awarded to privates. And Serna could never rise higher than private, because he spoke almost no English. He was instead awarded America’s second-highest decoration, the Distinguished Service Cross, in 1919. He would not have been awarded even that, were it not for the personal intervention of and insistence by the AEF’s commander, General Pershing, that Serna deserved a medal. Serna also received a French Medaille Militaire, as well as a Croix de Guerre With 2 Palms, and an Italian Croce al Merito di Guerra, among other awards from America’s allies.
After recovering from his wounds, Serna returned to America and settled in Texas, as that state’s most decorated World War I soldier. He was naturalized as a US citizen in 1924, then got married and raised a family in El Paso, where he got a job in a packing company. He eventually became a plumber in El Paso’s William Beaumont Army Medical Center, and worked there until his retirement in 1960. He died in 1992 at age 95, and was buried in El Paso’s Fort Bliss National Cemetery. In 1995, legislation was first introduced in Congress, requesting that Serna finally be awarded a Medal of Honor. To date, such efforts have gone nowhere.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources & Further Reading
El Paso Herald Post, September 26th, 2017 – El Paso World War I Hero: Private Marcelino Serna
El Paso Times, May 29th, 2016 – Marcelino Serna, American Hero
Texas State Historical Association – Serna, Marcelino
Vintage News – The Most Decorated US WWI Veteran From Texas Was Actually a Mexican Immigrant
Vintage News – Alvin York, Who Single-Handedly Captured 132 Enemy Soldiers In WWI