1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Medal of Honor Page 5

Clipping from a newspaper about a dance given by the Houston Council of the League of United Latin American Citizens
to honor three Congressional Medal of Honor winners: Macario Garcia, Clteo Rodriguez and Lucina Adams - September 1945

Above photo and caption from the Eugene Register-Guard Sunday December 3, 1961

President John F. Kennedy speaks at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas November 21, 1963.

Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife Ladybird are in the center foreground.

Photo from Seize Occupy and Defend The Priceless Legacy of Staff Sergeant Macario Garcia
by Robert Bailey and Katherine Bailey, Lulu Publishing 2014 pp. 220

In 1981 the Houston City Council in Houston, Texas officially changed the name of Sixty-ninth Street to Macario García Drive.
This 1½ mile thoroughfare runs through the heart of the city's east-side Mexican-American community.

12/05/1983 - Vice President George HW Bush attends the dedication ceremony for the new US Army Reserve training center in Houston.
The center is being named for Macario Garcia, a World War II Congressional Medal of Honor winner, whose widow, Alice Garcia
(second from left) was also in attendance.

5/13/2005-The SGM Macario Garcia U.S. Army Reserve Center located at 1850 OST, one of the military facilities on the list released today of recommended
closures, is seen in these photos made Friday. Photo by Steve Ueckert / Houston Chronicle HOUCHRON CAPTION (05/14/2005) SECNEWS:
SLATED TO MOVE: This Army Reserve Center on Old Spanish Trail is to close and relocate to land on Ellington Field.

In 1983 Vice President George Bush dedicated Houston's Macario García Army Reserve Center

Alice Garcia is hugged by her grandson, Carlos Macario Garcia, 6,
under a portrait of her late husband, Medal of Honor recipient
Macario Garcia. Garcia's granddaughter, Alicia, 5, and
Fort Bend County Judge Jim Adolphus joined her for the
unveiling of a plaque to go with the portrait.

2002

Kevin Fujii / Chronicle

RICHMOND -- For five years, the portrait of a young soldier with a Medal of Honor draped around his neck has hung
in the rotunda of the Fort Bend County courthouse.

The only inscription accompanying the painting was, "Sgt. Macario Garcia, Congressional Medal of Honor."

Two county officials decided something more was needed, and on Monday, a plaque describing how Garcia earned
his nation's highest military honor was unveiled in a Veterans Day ceremony attended by family members and friends.

"A lot of people do not know the history behind Macario Garcia's Medal of Honor," said the county's district attorney, John Healey.

Garcia received the honor for his one-man attack that destroyed two German machine gun emplacements during World War II.

Healey and County Judge Jim Adolphus felt a description of Garcia's combat achievements should be installed next to the painting.

When the painting was first displayed in the courthouse in 1982, it hung near the front entrance, which is seldom used.

In 1997, Healey and Adolphus, who was then a justice of the peace, asked County Judge Mike Rozell to move it to the rotunda
where more people could see it.

Although it was in a more prominent place, the picture was not accompanied by a written description of Garcia's actions.

"We believed that the portrait standing alone was only half of the process of bringing recognition to this Medal of Honor winner,"
Healey said.

Healey said he believed it was simply an oversight that the portrait was never displayed with a written account of
Garcia's battlefield heroism.

Adolphus said Garcia, who died in a traffic accident in 1972, is the only person from Fort Bend County
to receive the Medal of Honor.

Inscribed on the plaque is the citation that was read by President Truman when he presented the medal to Garcia in a White House
ceremony in August 1945.

The road that took Garcia from the cotton fields of Sugar Land to the White House was long and difficult.

He was born in Villa de Castano, Mexico, in 1920, and when he was a child he moved with his family to Sugar Land,
where they worked as sharecroppers.

He joined the Army in November 1942, and after basic training and a stateside assignment, he was shipped to France
a few days after the D-Day invasion in June 1944.

On Nov. 27, near Grosshau, Germany, his unit came under intense machine gun and artillery fire. Garcia crawled forward
and single-handedly assaulted a German machine gun emplacement and knocked it out.

He was wounded in the attack, but a few minutes later a second machine gun began firing and he again attacked the emplacement,
killing three of the enemy and capturing four more.

"He fought on with his unit until the objective was taken and only then did he permit himself to be removed for medical care,"
part of the citation reads.

The installation of the plaque is the latest honor recognizing Garcia. Two Houston-area schools, a street, a park in Richmond
and a U.S. Army facility have been named for him.

His widow, Alice Garcia, helped unveil the plaque and said it will help others understand the accomplishments of her husband
and other veterans."It was something that was needed. Now people will know more about what he did," she said.

Actor Eric Morales in center portrays Macario Garcia in Veteranos-A Legacy of Valor at the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater during rehearsal
on Wednesday, July 3, 2002. The play about four Latino recipients of the Medal of Honor opens July 4. (Melissa Phillip/Chronicle) HOUCHRON CAPTION
(07/04/2002): Actors prepare Wednesday for today's opening of "Veteranos - A Legacy of Valor" at the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater.
The play focuses on Latino Medal of Honor recipients

Macario Garcia Memorial Park was named for
Macario Garcia after his death.

The Park is located at
716 Blume Road in the
city of Rosenberg, Texas.

A historical marker was erected by
the Texas Historial Commission
in honor of Macario Garcia
on Blume Road
in 2006.

Photo from the Waymarking website

The memorial for the recipients of the Medal of Honor from the State of Texas at the
Veteran's War Memorial of Texas at McAllen, Texas.

Macario Garcia mural on the exterior of Houston Fire Department Station #20 in East End’s Magnolia Park
(6902 Navigation Blvd. at Macario Garcia Dr.)

Mural was created by the artist Mez Data, and was dedicated on Veterans Day, November 11, 2021.