SECOND LIEUTENANT
GEORGE HENRY RAMER, USMCR (DECEASED) 
 

Medal of Honor Citation

Second Lieutenant George H. Ramer, 24, was posthumously awarded the Nation’s highest military decoration for heroism in Korea on 12 September 1951, when he sacrificed his life during a fearless attack on an enemy position. He was the 27th Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for heroism in Korea.

Second Lieutenant Ramer, a Navy enlisted man in World War II, was cited after leading an attack by the third platoon of Company I, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Although he and most of his men were wounded while fighting their way through vicious machine-gun, mortar and small-arms fire, he continued to lead the assault on the enemy-held hilltop, personally destroying an enemy bunker and directing his capture of the position.

When the enemy immediately began an overwhelming counter-attack, he ordered his men to withdraw and fought single-handedly to cover the withdrawal and the evacuation of three fatally wounded Marines. Wounded a second time, he refused aid, ordered his men to shelter and continued to fight until he was fatally wounded as the enemy overran his position.

George Henry Ramer was born 27 March 1927 in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania. He attended elementary school in Salisbury, Pennsylvania, and graduated from high school in 1944 in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the Navy on 11 August 1944 and served until 5 June 1946.

Upon his return to civilian life, he entered Bucknell University, from which he graduated in February 1950, with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and History. While attending college, he enrolled in the Marine Corps Reserve Platoon Leader’s program, completing summer training courses at Quantico, Virginia, in 1947 and 1948. He was commissioned in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1950 and taught high school civics, history and problems of democracy in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, before he was called to active duty at his own request on 3 January 1951.

Completing the Basic Course at Quantico, Virginia, in April 1951, 2dLt Ramer embarked the following month for Korea. Before his death he saw action in the campaigns against the Chinese Communist Spring Offensive and in the United Nations Summer-Fall Offensive. His remains were returned to the United States in December 1951 and interred in Lewisburg Cemetery, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

In addition to the Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart Medal awarded for his fatal wounds, 2dLt Ramer’s decorations include the Korean Service Medal with two bronze stars and the United Nations Service Medal.

The Medal of Honor was presented to his widow on 7 January 1953 by Secretary of the Navy Daniel A. Kimball in Washington, D.C.

Korean War 1950-1953 Medal of Honor