Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas Senate Bill SCR22 Compare Versions

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1	1	S.C.R. No. 22
2	2
3	3
4	4	SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
5	5	WHEREAS, The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest
6	6	decoration for valor in combat awarded to members of the United
7	7	States armed forces; generally presented to recipients by the
8	8	president of the United States on congress's behalf, it is often
9	9	called the Congressional Medal of Honor; and
10	10	WHEREAS, First authorized in 1861 for United States Navy and
11	11	Marine Corps personnel and for United States Army soldiers the
12	12	following year, Medals of Honor are awarded sparingly and bestowed
13	13	only on those individuals performing documented acts of gallant
14	14	heroism against an enemy force; and
15	15	WHEREAS, Since congress authorized the award, 70 Medals of
16	16	Honor have been accredited to the State of Texas, yet other Texans
17	17	have similarly distinguished themselves by acts of courageous
18	18	gallantry in combat no less deserving of such recognition; one such
19	19	individual is Marcelino Serna, a native of Mexico whose unflinching
20	20	and selfless bravery and acts of uncommon valor on the battlefields
21	21	of World War I made him one of Texas' most decorated heroes; and
22	22	WHEREAS, Born in the Mexican state of Chihuahua in 1896, he
23	23	came to the United States as a young man in search of a better life,
24	24	working various jobs in Texas, Kansas, and Colorado; and
25	25	WHEREAS, In 1917, Mr. Serna was working in Colorado when the
26	26	United States, unable to remain neutral any longer while war raged
27	27	in Europe, declared war on Germany; later that year, federal
28	28	officials in Denver, Colorado, gathered a group of men and held them
29	29	until their draft status could be verified; and
30	30	WHEREAS, Included in this group, Mr. Serna chose not to wait
31	31	for such verification and instead volunteered for service in the
32	32	United States Army; after only three weeks of training, 20-year-old
33	33	Private Serna was shipped to England, where he was assigned to the
34	34	355th Infantry of the 89th Division, a unit that was to see action
35	35	in some of the most arduous campaigns of the war; and
36	36	WHEREAS, By the time the unit arrived in France, Private
37	37	Serna's status as a noncitizen had come to light, and he was
38	38	consequently offered a discharge from the army; given the
39	39	opportunity to return home, Private Serna refused the discharge,
40	40	choosing to stay with his unit as it began its advance toward the
41	41	Meuse River and Argonne Forest in northeastern France; and
42	42	WHEREAS, At Saint Mihiel, Private Serna's unit was moving
43	43	through thick brush when a German machine gunner opened fire,
44	44	killing 12 American soldiers; with his lieutenant's permission,
45	45	Private Serna, a scout, continued forward, dodging machine-gun fire
46	46	until he reached the gunner's left flank; and
47	47	WHEREAS, Having come through a hail of bullets unscathed,
48	48	despite being hit twice in the helmet, Private Serna got close
49	49	enough to lob four grenades into the machine-gun nest, killing six
50	50	enemy soldiers and taking into custody the eight survivors, who
51	51	quickly surrendered to the lone American soldier; and
52	52	WHEREAS, This encounter was followed shortly by an even more
53	53	astounding feat when, during his second scouting mission in the
54	54	Meuse-Argonne campaign, Private Serna captured 24 German soldiers
55	55	with his Enfield rifle and grenades, an episode that began when he
56	56	spied a sniper walking on a trench bank; and
57	57	WHEREAS, Although the sniper was about 200 yards away,
58	58	Private Serna shot and wounded him, then followed the wounded
59	59	German's trail into a trench, where he discovered several more
60	60	enemy soldiers; opening fire, Private Serna killed three of the
61	61	enemy and scattered the others in that initial burst; and
62	62	WHEREAS, Frequently changing positions, Private Serna fooled
63	63	the enemy into thinking they were under fire from several
64	64	Americans, keeping up the ruse until he was close enough to lob
65	65	three grenades into the German dugout; in about 45 minutes of
66	66	furious action, Private Serna managed to kill 26 German soldiers
67	67	and capture another 24, whom he held captive by himself until his
68	68	unit arrived; and
69	69	WHEREAS, Enduring several months of combat action largely
70	70	unharmed, Private Serna was shot in both legs by a sniper four days
71	71	before the Armistice; while he was convalescing in an army hospital
72	72	in France, General John J. Pershing, commander-in-chief of the
73	73	American Expeditionary Forces, decorated Private Serna with the
74	74	Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest American combat
75	75	medal; and
76	76	WHEREAS, Private Serna also received two French Croix de
77	77	Guerre with Palm medals, the French Medaille Militaire, the French
78	78	Commemorative Medal, the Italian Cross of Merit, the World War I
79	79	Victory Medal, the Victory Medal with three campaign bars, the
80	80	Saint Mihiel Medal, the Verdun Medal, and two Purple Hearts; and
81	81	WHEREAS, Discharged from the army in 1919, Marcelino Serna
82	82	settled in El Paso, where he became a United States citizen, entered
83	83	the civil service, and lived out his retirement years until his
84	84	death in 1992; although he lived the most ordinary of lives after
85	85	the war, Mr. Serna was, for a brief moment in time, an extraordinary
86	86	hero whose remarkable feats of bravery under fire elevated him into
87	87	the pantheon of American heroes; and
88	88	WHEREAS, In 1993, Texas Congressman Ronald D. Coleman
89	89	introduced a measure in the 103rd Congress to waive certain
90	90	statutory time limits on awarding the Medal of Honor and thus bestow
91	91	on Marcelino Serna the proper recognition he so richly deserves;
92	92	unfortunately, the measure did not receive a proper hearing,
93	93	thereby denying the legacy of Mr. Serna its proper place in history;
94	94	now, therefore, be it
95	95	RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas
96	96	hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
97	97	reopen consideration of this case to posthumously award the Medal
98	98	of Honor to World War I hero Marcelino Serna; and, be it further
99	99	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
100	100	copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
101	101	the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
102	102	senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
103	103	Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
104	104	resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
105	105	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.
106	106	______________________________ ______________________________
107	107	President of the Senate Speaker of the House
108	108	I hereby certify that S.C.R. No. 22 was adopted by the Senate
109	109	on April 9, 2009, by a viva-voce vote.
110	110	______________________________
111	111	Secretary of the Senate
112	112	I hereby certify that S.C.R. No. 22 was adopted by the House
113	113	on May 24, 2009, by the following vote: Yeas 147, Nays 0, one
114	114	present not voting.
115	115	______________________________
116	116	Chief Clerk of the House
117	117	Approved:
118	118	______________________________
119	119	Date
120	120	______________________________
121	121	Governor