Ben L. Salomon

Benjamin Lewis Salomon (September 1, 1914 – July 7, 1944) was a United States Army dentist during World War II, assigned as a front-line surgeon.

During the Battle of Saipan, when the Japanese started overrunning his hospital, he stood a rear-guard action in which he had no hope of personal survival, allowing the safe evacuation of the wounded, killing as many as 98 enemy troops before being killed himself.

Salomon was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on September 1, 1914.

He was an Eagle Scout, one of nine who were awarded the Medal of Honor.

He graduated from Shorewood High School and attended Marquette University, before transferring to the University of Southern California, where he completed his undergraduate degree.

Salomon was able to grab an M1 Garand that was near him, kill the enemy that entered the hospital tent and ordered the wounded to be evacuated, while he stayed and fired upon the incoming enemy with an M1917 machine gun to cover their withdrawal.

When an Army team returned to the site days later, Salomon's body was found slumped over the machine gun, with the bodies of 98 enemy troops piled up in front of his position.

His body had 76 bullet wounds and many bayonet wounds, up to 24 of which may have been received while he was still alive.

Capt. Edmund G. Love, the 27th Division historian, was a part of the team that found Salomon's body.

At the request of Brig. Gen. Ogden J. Ross, the assistant commander of the 27th Division, Love gathered eyewitness accounts and prepared a recommendation for the Medal of Honor for Salomon.

The recommendation was returned by Maj. Gen. George W. Griner, the commanding general of the 27th Division.

Officially, Griner declined to approve the award because Salomon was "in the medical service and wore a Red Cross brassard upon his arm. Under the rules of the Geneva Convention, to which the United States subscribes, no medical officer can bear arms against the enemy."

However, the guideline for awarding the Medal of Honor to medical non-combatants states that one may not receive the Medal of Honor for actions in an offensive.

More recent interpretations of the convention, as well as the US Laws of Land Warfare, allow use of personal weapons (i.e., rifles and pistols) in self-defense or in defense of patients and staff, as long as the medical soldier does not wear the Red Cross.

Part of the problem in Salomon's citation was that a machine gun is considered a "crew-served" weapon, not an individual one.

He graduated from the USC Dental School in 1937 and began a dental practice.

In 1940, he was drafted into the United States Army and began his military service as an infantry private, qualifying expert in rifle and pistol.

In 1942, he was notified that he would become an officer in the Army Dental Corps and was commissioned a first lieutenant.

On August 14, 1942, the 102nd Infantry Regt.

commanding officer declared him the unit's "best all around soldier".

In May 1943, he was serving as the regimental dental officer of the 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division.

He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1944.

In June 1944, Salomon saw his first combat — going ashore on Saipan with the 105th Infantry.

With little dental work to do during active combat, Salomon volunteered to replace the 2nd Battalion's surgeon, who had been wounded.

As the 2nd Battalion advanced, casualties were high.

On July 7, Salomon's aid station was set up only 50 yards behind the forward foxhole line.

Fighting was heavy and a major Japanese assault soon overran the perimeter, then the aid station.

In 1951, Love again resubmitted the recommendation through the Office of the Chief of Military History.

The recommendation was returned without action with another pro-forma reason: the time limit for submitting World War II awards had passed.

In 1969, another Medal of Honor recommendation was submitted by Lt. Gen. Hal B. Jennings, the Surgeon General of the United States Army.

In 1970, Stanley R. Resor, Secretary of the Army, recommended approval and forwarded the recommendation to the Secretary of Defense.

The recommendation was returned without action.

In 1998, the recommendation was re-submitted by Dr. Robert West (USC Dental School) through Congressman Brad Sherman, with the support of Maj. Gen. Patrick D. Sculley, new chief of the Army Dental Corps.

In 2002, Salomon posthumously received the Medal of Honor.

He is one of only three dental officers to have received the medal, the others being Alexander Gordon Lyle and Weedon Osborne.

Finally, on May 1, 2002, President George W. Bush presented Salomon's Medal of Honor to Dr. West.

West then presented the Medal to Sculley for permanent placement in the Army Medical Department Museum in San Antonio, Texas.

A replica of Salomon's Medal of Honor is displayed at the USC Dental School.

The Army Medical Department, at this point, was supportive.

CAPTAIN BEN L. SALOMON UNITED STATES ARMY