#VeteranOfTheDay Army Veteran Yeiki Kobashigawa - VAntage Point

In June 1944, near Lanuvio, Italy, Kobashigawa and his platoon were ambushed by German forces who were hunkered down in several machine gun nests. Under intense enemy fire, Kobashigawa led a squad that crawled 50 yards toward the nests and assaulted the first nest with grenades and submachine gun fire. After capturing the first nest, his platoon advanced while Kobashigawa repeated the process on a second machine gun nest. The second machine gun nest was seized in a similar fashion by Kobashigawa and a fellow soldier, resulting in the capture of four German soldiers as prisoners. Four more machine guns nests were in the vicinity and Kobashigawa was successful in disabling two of them. For these actions, Kobashigawa received a Distinguished Service Cross in 1944. In 1996, the United States began investigating discrimination against American soldiers of Japanese descent, in regards to medals and citations awarded during World War II. This led to Kobashigawa’s Distinguished Service Cross being changed to a Medal of Honor in 2000. It was awarded to Kobashigawa by President Bill Clinton at the White House.