b. 25/11/1890 New Washington, Philippines. d. 08/05/1968 Cavite Navy Yard, Philippines.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 21/01/1915 near La Paz on board the USS San Diego, Philippines.
Telesforo D Trinidad MOH
Trinidad was born November 25, 1890, in New Washington on the Philippine island of Panay to parents Juan Trinidad and Florentina De La Cruz.
In 1901, shortly after Spain ceded the Philippines to the U.S. after the Spanish-American War, President William McKinley established the Insular Force of the U.S. Navy that allowed the enlistment of 500 Filipino sailors.
Trinidad desperately wanted to be one of those sailors. His grandson, Rene Trinidad, told the Associated Press that Trinidad was so eager to join that when he was 20, he stowed away on a lifeboat from Panay to the main island, Luzon, so he could enlist at the Cavite Navy Yard, about an hour south of Manila.
At some point after enlistment, he met and married Eufemia Pagtakhan. The digital magazine Positively Filipino said the couple had 11 children, eight of whom lived to adulthood. Two of their sons followed their father into the Navy.
By 1915, Trinidad was working as a fireman on the armored cruiser USS San Diego. On Jan. 15, 1915, the ship was part of a naval patrol near La Paz, Mexico, in the Gulf of California. That day, historians said its captain decided to hold a four-hour endurance trial to make sure the cruiser could still maintain its officially rated flank speed. At the end of the trial, one of the boiler tubes had become blocked, causing an explosion that led to a chain reaction. Trinidad was driven out of fireroom No. 2 by the blast, but he immediately went back in and picked up an injured fireman, R.E. Daly. As he was carrying Daly through fireroom No. 4, a second explosion in fireroom No. 3 hit Trinidad, severely burning his face. Trinidad dismissed his own injuries and kept moving until he was able to pass Daly on to someone else. He then went back to fireroom No. 3 to save another man.
Five sailors died and seven others were injured that day, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command. But Trinidad’s heroics helped rescue two, and that earned him the Medal of Honor, which was still being awarded for noncombat valor at the time. He received the honor in August 1915 and was also given $100 in gratuity pay for his efforts.
Nineteen years after the USS San Diego incident, another of Trinidad’s shipmates, then-Ensign Robert Cary Jr., also received the Medal of Honor for his bravery that day. Trinidad remained in the Navy for a long time, serving in both world wars. He retired in 1945 and returned to the Philippines.
Trinidad died on May 8, 1968, at a hospital at the Cavite Navy Yard, where he began his naval career. He was 77. He remains the only Filipino to be awarded the Medal of Honor serving in the US Navy.
MOH CITATION:
For extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession at the time of the boiler explosion on board the U.S.S. San Diego, 21 January 1915. Trinidad was driven out of fireroom No. 2 by the explosion, but at once returned and picked up R.E. Daly, fireman second class, whom he saw injured, and proceeded to bring him out. While coming into No. 4 fireroom, Trinidad was just in time to catch the explosion in No. 3 fireroom, but without consideration for his own safety, passed Daly on and then assisted in rescuing another injured man from No. 3 fireroom. Trinidad was himself burned about the face by the blast from the explosion in No. 3 fireroom.
BURIAL LOCATION: IMUS CEMETERY, IMUS, CAVITE, PHILIPPINES.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: FAMILY.
