11/11/2025
This Veteran's Day, we'd like to share with you the story of Dr. Benjamin Salomon, a dentist who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Today, and every day, we are grateful for the sacrifices of the men and women who chose to put on the uniform and serve this extraordinary nation.
Benjamin Salomon graduated from the University of Southern California School of Dentistry in 1937. In 1940, while working as a dentist, he was drafted as a PFC into the United States Army. Soon after, he was promoted to SGT and assigned to a machine gunnery unit. He wasn’t commissioned as a dental officer until 1943. In 1944, while assigned as a dental officer of the 105th Infantry Regiment, he was deployed to Saipan in the Mariana Islands. When the battalion medical surgeon was wounded, he volunteered to replace him.
On July 7, 1944, 5,000 Japanese forces attacked, and penetrated the Americans’ perimeter, causing an overwhelming number of casualties. CPT Salomon tended to these victims in a medical tent near the foxholes. Enemy forces eventually made their way inside, risking the lives of the injured, and the troops he had sworn to protect. CPT Salomon, armed with a single r***e, ordered the evacuation of the injured while he continued to fight. After nearly four hours of heavy battle, it is estimated that CPT Salomon singlehandedly killed more than 90 Japanese soldiers. CPT Salomon lost his life that day, and while US forces suffered an 83% casualty rate, that rate would have undoubtedly been higher without the heroic efforts of CPT Salomon.
Due to the rules of the Geneva Convention, medical officers were not authorized to take up arms against the enemy, and despite his heroic efforts, CPT Salomon was not eligible to receive military awards for his actions. In 2002, CPT Salomon posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Honor from President George W. Bush.
Sources: nationalarchives.gov; nationalww2museum.org
