Medal of Honor
1950-09-04
Waegwan, Korea
- Rank at action
- Master Sergeant
- Service
- U.S. Army
- Conflict
- Korean War
- Unit or command
- Company F, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division
- Presentation date
- March 18, 2014
The Citation
Sources ↓Pena is being recognized for his actions on the evening of Sept. 4, 1950, near Waegwan, Korea, when his unit was fiercely attacked. During the course of the counter-attack, Pena realized that their ammunition was running out, and ordered his unit to retreat. Pena then manned a machine-gun to cover their withdrawal. He single-handedly held back the enemy until morning when his position was overrun, and he was killed.
Sources & record notes
General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.
- Mike C Pena — Congressional Medal of Honor Society recipient profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-09-01
current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison
Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
- Award ID
- MOH-AW-002979
- Transcription status
- Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
- Last source check
- 2026-09-01
- Entered service at
- El Paso, TX
- Archive transcription SHA-256
- e1ac1e0f605544d50ebed57b9cce28ce3a407ed94f551ac0ded8fba5517c155b
Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; rendered current reference profile comparison is documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.
The current Society heading omits punctuation in the middle initial; the legacy punctuated form remains an alias.