CORPORAL
LUTHER SKAGGS, JR., USMCR (DECEASED) 
 

Medal of Honor Citation

Luther Skaggs, Jr., was born 3 March 1923 in Henderson, Kentucky. He entered the Marine Corps, 6 October 1942, and received recruit training at Parris Island, South Carolina, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He went overseas 1 March 1943.

Private First Class Skaggs, a squad leader with a mortar section in the 3d Marine Division, was critically wounded when a Japanese grenade exploded in his foxhole during the night of 21-22 July 1944 on the Asan-Adelup beachhead on Guam. But instead of calling a corpsman and revealing his outfit's position, he calmly applied a tourniquet to his shattered leg and for eight hours continued to return the enemy's fire with his rifle and hand grenades.

In the official Medal of Honor citation, he is commended for being uncomplaining and calm through this critical period and serving as "a heroic example of courage and fortitude to other wounded men."

When his section leader became a casualty shortly after landing on the beachhead, PFC Skaggs promptly took over and led the section through intense fire for a distance of 200 yards to a strategic position.

It was while defending this vital position that he was wounded, and after fighting throughout the night propped up in his foxhole, he crawled unassisted to the rear where he continued the attack. Only when the Japanese in the area had been annihilated did he seek medical attention. He lost his leg as the result of the wound.

Private First Class Skaggs was referred to as a "tough little guy" by his buddies, who did not know that he had been hit until the battle was over. He was promoted to corporal upon being honorably discharged from active service in the Marine Corps on 4 April 1946.

The Medal of Honor was presented to him by President Harry S. Truman at a White House ceremony on 15 June 1945.

Corporal Luther Skaggs, Jr., died on 6 April 1976 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

World War II 1941-1945 Medal of Honor