Medal of Valor

Beginning on the morning of April 10, 1942, the tadpole-shaped fortress island of Corregidor—known as the Rock to every American soldier, sailor, and Marine who served there—stood alone against the Japanese juggernaut that had just consumed the Bataan Peninsula two miles away. Japanese troops were busily moving 75 of the same powerful artillery pieces that had smashed the American-Filipino lines on the peninsula a few days earlier, positioning them to bear on Corregidor from what amounted to point-blank range.