Bill Text: TX HCR71 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Urging Congress to bestow on Marcelino Serna the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-1)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2021-05-26 - Removed from local & uncontested calendar [HCR71 Detail]
Download: Texas-2021-HCR71-Comm_Sub.html
By: Lopez, et al. (Senate Sponsor - Blanco, et al.) | H.C.R. No. 71 | |
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 12, 2021; | ||
May 12, 2021, read first time and referred to Committee on Veteran | ||
Affairs & Border Security; May 20, 2021, reported adversely, with | ||
favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 6, | ||
Nays 0; May 20, 2021, sent to printer.) | ||
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.C.R. No. 71 | By: Blanco |
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WHEREAS, Marcelino Serna was one of the most decorated | ||
military veterans in Texas history, and his heroic actions during | ||
World War I make him a worthy candidate for the Congressional Medal | ||
of Honor, our nation's highest military award; and | ||
WHEREAS, Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1896, Mr. Serna came | ||
to the United States as a young man and spent time in Texas, Kansas, | ||
and Colorado; after the United States entered World War I in 1917, | ||
he enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 20, and after only three | ||
weeks of training, he was shipped overseas with the 355th Infantry, | ||
89th Division; when his superior officers in France learned that he | ||
was not a U.S. citizen, they gave him the opportunity to return | ||
home, but Private Serna chose to stay and fight; and | ||
WHEREAS, Private Serna demonstrated exceptional | ||
resourcefulness and courage on the battlefield; during an | ||
engagement near the French town of St. Mihiel, 12 members of his | ||
unit were hit by fire from an enemy machine gun, and Private Serna | ||
obtained permission from his lieutenant to scout out the gun | ||
emplacement on his own; moving through heavy fire, and surviving | ||
two rounds that were deflected by his helmet, he tossed four hand | ||
grenades into the machine gun nest, killing six of the enemy; he | ||
then took the eight survivors captive; and | ||
WHEREAS, Shortly thereafter, during the Meuse-Argonne | ||
campaign, Private Serna embarked on a second lone scouting mission; | ||
he began by wounding a German sniper with a shot from 200 yards, | ||
then followed the injured man into a trench; firing and hurling | ||
grenades in all directions to make it seem as if he were part of a | ||
larger force, he shot three German soldiers immediately, then | ||
attacked an enemy dugout, felling 26 more and capturing 24; he | ||
single-handedly held the prisoners at gunpoint until other members | ||
of his unit arrived; and | ||
WHEREAS, Private Serna continued to serve in combat until the | ||
end of the war, receiving a wound in each leg, and while he was | ||
recovering in a French hospital, he was presented with the | ||
Distinguished Service Cross, our nation's second highest military | ||
decoration, from the American commander in France, General John J. | ||
Pershing; he also earned the World War I Victory Medal with five | ||
stars, the Victory Medal with three campaign bars, the St. Mihiel | ||
Medal, the Verdun Medal, and two Purple Hearts; he was further | ||
decorated by the governments of France, Italy, and the United | ||
Kingdom, receiving two French Croix de Guerre with Palm Medals, the | ||
French Medaille Militaire, the French Commemorative Medal, the | ||
British Medal of Honor, and the Italian Cross of Merit; and | ||
WHEREAS, After returning to the United States, Mr. Serna | ||
became a U.S. citizen in 1924 and settled in El Paso, where he | ||
worked for the quartermaster at Fort Bliss; he was a charter member | ||
of VFW Post No. 2753 and volunteered with veterans advocacy groups, | ||
and when he died in 1992, he was buried with full military honors at | ||
Fort Bliss; he was the most decorated Texas veteran of World War I, | ||
winning every major military award short of the Congressional Medal | ||
of Honor, and records indicate that he was denied that supreme honor | ||
only because he was a Mexican American immigrant and did not know | ||
enough English to be promoted; and | ||
WHEREAS, Marcelino Serna volunteered to serve our nation in | ||
combat before he was even a citizen, and he stayed to fight when he | ||
might have gone home; his courageous battlefield actions during | ||
World War I have been recognized with a host of illustrious | ||
commendations, and he truly warrants the highest honor that can be | ||
bestowed on a member of the armed forces of the United States; now, | ||
therefore, be it | ||
RESOLVED, That the 87th Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to support the | ||
nomination of Marcelino Serna for the Congressional Medal of Honor; | ||
and, be it further | ||
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of | ||
Representatives of the United States Congress, to the United States | ||
secretary of defense, and to all the members of the Texas delegation | ||
to Congress with the request that this resolution be officially | ||
entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of | ||
the United States of America. | ||
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