Bill Text: TX HCR71 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Urging Congress to bestow on Marcelino Serna the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Sponsorship: 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

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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.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.C.R. No. 71 By: Blanco

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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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