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Lance Corporal Jose Francisco Jimenez was an active-duty Marine for only 14 months, 21 days. Yet, he is a Marine today and will remain so forever.
In the proud history of the Corps, there are thousands of stories of bravery, of adversity overcome, of sacrifice and heartbreak. Many are similar, no two are alike.
Perhaps the story of Jose Jimenez is one of a kind, not only for what Jose did while a Marine, but also for what did not happen for 18 years after he won the Medal of Honor in Nam-posthumously.
In 1970, then-President Richard Nixon presented the medal to Jose's mother, Basilia Jimenez, at a White House ceremony. The accompanying citation details his bravery "at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty."
On August 28, 1969, in Quang Nam Province, LCpl Jimenez was serving as a fire team leader with Company "K", Third Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division.
When the lead platoon was pinned down by North Vietnamese small arms, automatic weapons, and even antiaircraft weapons fire, Jimenez seized the initiative. Plunging into high grass, he killed an enemy soldier blocking his path to the antiaircraft weapon. He charged across 20 meters of fire-swept ground, and with rifle and grenades destroyed the position and killed the gunner. Shouting encouragement to his companions, he moved ahead through vicious fire, killing another enemy soldier with a grenade and then two more with his rifle from a distance of 10 feet, as they raked the area with automatic weapons fire.
By now the enemy was concentrating on LCpl Jimenez, but he continued to advance, seeking out a sixth enemy soldier who he'd sighted in a tree line, when he was mortally wounded by a North Vietnamese sniper. He was 23.
The citation omits a pertinent fact that could have kept Jimenez Stateside in a safe civilian job, had he not chosen to wear the Marine uniform. Jimenez was not an American citizen, but a citizen of the Republic of Mexico.
When he was 10, Jose accompanied his mother and 4-year-old sister from their home in the city of Morelia, between Mexico City and Guadalajara, to Eloy, a central Arizona farming community. There, they found the better life they sought.