Lance Corporal Emilio A. de la Garza, Jr.

Organization: U.S. Marine Corps, Company E, Second Battalion, First Marines, First Marine Division

Place and date: Near Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam, 11 April 1970

Entered service at: Chicago, IL

Place of Birth: East Chicago, IN

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a machine gunner with Company E, Second Battalion, First Marines, First Marine Division, in the Republic of Vietnam on April 11, 1970.Lance Corporal de la Garza's War Department Citation reads as follows:

Returning with his squad from a night ambush operation, Lance Corporal De La Garza joined his Platoon commander and another Marine in searching for two enemy soldiers who had been observed fleeing for cover toward a small pond. Moments later, he located one of the enemy soldiers hiding among the reeds and brush.

As the three Marines attempted to remove the resisting soldier from the pond, Lance Corporal De La Garza observed him pull the pin on a grenade. Shouting a warning, Lance COrporal De La Garza placed himself between the other two Marines and the ensuing blast from the grenade, thereby saving the lives of his comrades at the sacrifice of his own.

By his prompt and decisive action, and his great personal valor in the face of almost certain death, Lance Corporal De La Garza upheld and further enhanced the finest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.

Information on Staff Sergeant Adams and text of citation were obtained from official records made available by the United States Department of Defense.