Mending the Past

Dentist Hero Finally Awarded Congressional Medal of Honor

Collette Knittel

Copyright 2002 Journal of the California Dental Association.

The story unfolds on a battlefield in Saipan and concludes in the White House Rose Garden, but what lies in the middle is an incredible string of events that revised American history. The main characters are dentists: two men who never meet, yet their lives are forever intertwined. The story tells of war, death, valor, perseverance, and honor regained. And the story is true.

During the years just prior to World War II, a man named Benjamin Salomon found himself newly graduated from the University of Southern California School of Dentistry and eager to serve his country. In 1937, he applied for a commission as an Army dentist, but his application was denied due to a lack of need for service dentists. Instead, Salomon opened a private practice in Los Angeles until the political climate changed.

In 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Selective Service Act, which required men age 21 to 35 to register for military training. Salomon signed up and was immediately called into the Army as a private of the infantry. Assigned to the 102nd Infantry Regiment in Fort Ord, Calif., near Monterey, Salomon reported for duty with his dental instruments in hand. While discovering his inclination for military service, he spent his spare hours scaling the teeth of the men in his platoon. On weekends, he would drive a group from his regiment down to his Los Angeles practice for free dental care and have them back in time to report for duty on Monday morning.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Salomon’s platoon shipped out to Christmas Island, south of Hawaii. Here, he spent considerable time developing his skills as a soldier. His commanding officers described him as the best all-around solider on the island. Within a year, he was a sergeant in command of a machine-gun section in his heavy-weapons company.

Salomon’s combat training was cut short when the government switched plans on him; and by August 1942, he was transferred to the 105th Infantry Regiment in Hawaii, where he was Lt. Salomon, the regimental dentist. He not only cared for the dental needs of his men during the mornings, but he also served as an infantry instructor in the afternoons. In the 105th, the regimental dentist also won most of the infantry proficiency competitions. Within a year, Salomon was promoted to the rank of captain.

On June 15, 1944, the 105th landed on Saipan, Marianas Islands, where the Japanese army had been reduced from 30,000 troops to 9,000 troops with a limited weapons supply. Refusing to surrender, approximately 5,000 Japanese troops advanced on the American soldiers one last time on July 7, the day Salomon fought his first and last battle. According to information from the U.S. Army Center for Military History, it was one of the largest attacks attempted in the Pacific Theater during World War II. In the first minutes of the attack, approximately 30 wounded soldiers walked, crawled, or were carried into Salomon’s aid station; and the small tent soon filled with wounded men.

As Salomon struggled to work on his men, he looked over and saw a Japanese soldier bayoneting one of the wounded soldiers lying near the tent. He turned around and saw two more Japanese soldiers appearing in the front entrance to the tent. As he grabbed a wounded soldier’s rifle and fired on the enemy soldiers, four more crawled under the tent walls. Rushing them, Salomon kicked the knife out of the hand of one, shot another, and bayoneted a third. He butted the fourth enemy soldier in the stomach and a wounded comrade then shot and killed the enemy soldier.

Walking outside, Salomon saw that the machine-gunners protecting the tent were dead. Realizing the severity of the situation, he returned to the tent and ordered the wounded to try to get back to the regimental aid station, while he attempted to hold off the enemy. He was heard to say to the others in charge, "Everybody’s dead out there. I can do these guys more good out there than I can in here. I’ll hold them off until you get them to safety. See you later."

That was the last time anyone saw Salomon alive. The regimental historian, Capt. Edmund J. Love, was present the next day when they found Salomon’s body bent over a machine gun, his finger still on the trigger.

Love later wrote, "The Japanese dead lay scattered before him like trees felled by a tropic storm." He counted 98 Japanese bodies in front of Salomon’s position. Salomon himself had 76 bullet wounds in his body.

Because of his heroic effort, Salomon was recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor.

According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s Web site, the Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States. In Allen Mikaelian’s book, Medal of Honor: Profiles of America’s Military Heroes from the Civil War to the Present, Mike Wallace of TV’s "Sixty Minutes" points out in the Introduction the special circumstances required to be eligible for this prestigious award. "To my surprise, I learned no one can receive a Medal of Honor for having acted under orders, no matter how heroically he carried out those orders, for the medal is reserved strictly for those who act of their own accord and out of complete selflessness. It is those rigorous conditions that set the Medal of Honor apart from all other military citations."

However the proposed citation for Salomon was returned by the commanding general with the following message, "I am deeply sorry that I cannot approve the award for this medal to Capt. Salomon, although he richly deserves it. At the time of his death, this officer was in the medical service and wore a Red Cross brassard upon the sleeve of his uniform. Under the rules of the Geneva Convention, to which the United States subscribes, no medical officer can bear arms against the enemy."

50 Years Later ...

Half a century later, an informal gathering of USC School of Dentistry alumni, including Robert West, DDS, of Calabasas, Calif., were amassing stories, memories, and photos for their centennial celebration. West, a 1952 graduate who served during World War II as a medical and dental corpsman, came across documentation of Salomon’s story submitted by 1936 graduate Harry Cimring, DDS. West began his own research, and what he found only increased his resolve to add the heroic dentist’s name to the pages of history.

West’s dogged efforts and careful study proved that the denial was not in fact based on a technicality, but on an error. He found that Article 8 of the Geneva Convention of 1929 specified that medical personnel were prohibited from bearing arms against the enemy for offensive purposes, but they could bear arms in self-defense or in defense of the wounded or sick. It became blatantly apparent to West that the recommendation for the Medal of Honor for Salomon was denied by the commanding general due to his misinterpretation of the Geneva Convention. Now all he had to do was make the leaders of the United States concur.

"This was an error in the history of our nation," West explained. "I became obsessed. It had to be fixed."

West commenced his letter-writing campaign on July 7, 1997, 53 years to the day after Salomon had engaged in the selfless act of valor that would cost him his life. West’s correspondences started with his congressman, Brad Sherman (D-24th), and included Maj. Gen. John Cuddy, who was then chief of the U.S. Army Dental Corps; Col. Marvin Bennet, USAF, senior consultant for dentistry, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense; and Maj. Daniel B. Gibson, chief of the U.S. Army Military Awards Branch, among many others.

Over a year later, West received his first glimmer of hope. It was a letter from Maj. Gen. Patrick D. Sculley, new chief of the Army Dental Corps. His letter thanked West for his persistence and went on to state, "the testimonies of Captain Salomon’s heroic actions on July 7, 1944 in Saipan make me proud to serve our great country in the fine tradition of the United States Army and as a commissioned officer of the Dental Corps. As chief of the Dental Corps, I want to assure you that I am following this recommendation for Captain Salomon’s Medal of Honor very closely and look forward to the day when it is finally approved."

During West’s attempt to add his fellow alumnus to the list of Medal recipients, there was another potential hold up; the statute of limitations on receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor had run out. Not to be deterred, West approached Congressman Sherman on the matter, and Sherman proposed a waiver that was later approved by Congress.

"I never once thought of giving up," West said. "What stuck with me was the fact that, when Capt. Ben left that tent, he must have known he was going to die, and yet he never hesitated. He was a true hero."

In December 2001, West received a phone call from Sculley stating that it was merely a matter of time before Salomon’s medal was awarded. Sculley was due to retire in June 2002, and told West that he would love to have the Medal awarded during his watch, as Salomon would be the first Army dentist ever to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

On April 18, West received the assurance he had been seeking for almost five years. A representative from the Army Pentagon called and said President George W. Bush would be presenting Salomon’s Congressional Medal of Honor in a Rose Garden ceremony on May 1.

During West’s four-day trip to Washington, D.C., he and his wife and daughter were escorted by Col. Larry Cook, an Army dentist from the Pentagon. Cook spoke highly of both West and the ceremony honoring Salomon.

"Dr. West’s perseverance and dedication are remarkable," he said. "His work honors the memory of Capt. Salomon, the Army, and the dental profession."

"It was a glorious day in Washington," Cook added. "The Medal of Honor ceremony in the Rose Garden and the Hall of Heroes reception at the Pentagon capped off the celebration of a true American hero."

An only child of parents who died years ago, Salomon never married or had children of his own. Genealogical searches have produced no other living relatives. Salomon’s ashes, as well as those of his parents, are interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif.

"No one who knew him is with us this afternoon," said President Bush at the ceremony. "Yet Americans will always know Benjamin Lewis Salomon ... as the match for 100 [enemy soldiers], a person of true valor who now receives the honor due him from a grateful country."

At the Medal of Honor ceremony, West and John Ingle, DDS, dean of the USC dental school from 1964 to 1972 who had attempted to have the Medal bestowed upon Salomon years before, accepted the posthumous award on behalf of their fellow hero dentist.

"Finally receiving the Medal on Dr. Ben’s behalf was indescribable," West said. "When I had the chance to converse with our president in the Oval Office before the ceremony, I told him that I knew Dr. Ben was up there smiling down on us."

West then presented the Medal to Sculley for permanent placement in the Army Medical Department Museum in San Antonio, Texas. A replica of the Medal will be housed at the USC School of Dentistry.

"The tenth of May was the most memorable day in my life as it entailed the many ceremonies of my retirement from the Army," Sculley said. "The ultimate event of that day was when I presented Capt. Solomon’s Medal to the Army Medical Department Museum. I am sure my pride was evident as Ben’s Medal was enshrined with the mementos of the other great heroes of the Army Medical Department. His legacy is now on display to remind us all that freedom requires sacrifice; and there are some like Capt. Ben Solomon, U.S. Army Dental Corps, who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice."

Author

Collette Knittel is CDA’s staff writer. She can be reached at collette@cda.org.

Dr. Benjamin Salomon’s photo appeared in the 1937 USC yearbook, El Rodeo.

Marines run for cover during battle in Saipan. These are the kinds of conditions under which Capt. Salomon treated soldiers and ultimately earned his Medal of Honor.

Dr. Salomon treated wounded soldiers in a medical tent like this one. He died outside a medical tent, providing cover for his patients so they could escape the Japanese.

President Bush presents the Congressional Medal of Honor to Dr. Robert West in a White House Rose Garden ceremony.

Dr. West presents the Medal of Honor to Major. Gen. Patrick D. Sculley, then chief of the Army Dental Corps.

Secretary of the Army Thomas White, Dr. West, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Shinseki, and Sgt. Maj. Tilley (from left) appear at the Hall of Heroes ceremony at the Pentagon.