This Day in History: Elbert Kinser's Medal of Honor

On this day in 1945, a young Marine makes a split-second decision, saving the lives of four Navy corpsmen. Elbert L. Kinser’s extraordinary bravery on this day so long ago would earn him the Medal of Honor.

“He was a farm boy,” Earl Fletcher says. “He was just a good old Greene County farm boy who left the farm and went to the South Pacific in World War II.”  Fletcher is executive director of the Nathanael Greene Museum, where Kinser’s Medal remains a treasured part of the collection.

Kinser enlisted in the Marines late in 1942, when he was just twenty years old. He completed boot camp and was serving in the Pacific by March 1943, fighting with the 1st Marines in some of the war’s toughest battles.

By the time he landed in Okinawa, he’d been promoted to Sergeant, and he was acting as leader of a rifle platoon. Okinawa, of course, was among the bloodiest of the battles fought by our Marines. Kinser was in the mix for weeks, until matters came to a head on May 4, 1945.

His unit had been securing a vital ridge when it came under attack. Kinser was hit, and four Navy corpsmen rushed to his aid. They had just loaded him onto a stretcher when an enemy grenade fell right beside them.

Kinser didn’t hesitate. He rolled off the stretcher, falling on the grenade and “absorbing the full charge of the shattering explosion in his own body and thereby protecting his men from serious injury and possible death,” his Medal citation concludes. “Stouthearted and indomitable, he had yielded his own chance of survival that his comrades might live.”

A friend saw Kinser afterward. He had been knocked unconscious and would not wake from his mortal wound. “He had a smile on his face,” Corporal J.L. Stark said, “one that is so natural to Elbert. His last act was to save four of his buddies and his mission was accomplished.”

Kinser’s parents would receive his Medal of Honor just over a year later, at an Independence Day parade. Roughly 25,000 Greene County citizens were present as their hometown son was honored. “I don’t know what Elbert would have thought of this crowd,” his mom said at the time. “We have never seen anything like it in our lives. I wish he could have lived to be here today.”

They’d already received a letter from the President, too.

“He stands in the unbroken line of patriots,” Harry Truman wrote, “who have dared to die that freedom might live and grow and increase its blessings—Freedom Lives and through it he lives in a way that humbles the undertakings of most men.”

Greene County remains proud of Kinser, the only Medal recipient to hail from their part of Tennessee.  They named a local bridge for him in 1953, then separately unveiled a monument near the Sgt. Elbert L. Kinser Memorial Bridge at a Veterans Day ceremony in 1957.

Fittingly, it also happened to be the Marines’ 182nd birthday.

“The examples of men like Elbert Kinser inspire and motivate Marines to be worthy of our Corps,” Brigadier General Chester R. Allen told the assembled crowd, “so that it may continue to fulfill its role of a combat force of combined arms, ready to leave for service in any part of the world.  Even more than that, the example of a young man like Elbert Kinser in gallantly giving his life for his country is an inspiration to all Americans. Let us all rededicate ourselves to our great country and strive to be worthy citizens.”

Constitution4Kids.com

Primary Sources:

• Cleveland Smith, Medal Awarded Hero’s Parents (Knoxville Journal; July 5, 1946 (p. 1)

• Elbert L. Kinser (East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association) (reprinting WBIR.com story by Jim Matheny, November 11, 2011)

• Greene Marine to be Honored Posthumously (Johnson City Press; Oct. 27, 1948) (p. 3)

• Ken Little, Sgt. Elbert Kinser's Memory Honored At Route 107 Bridge Dedication (Greeneville Sun; May 23, 2025)

• Medal of Honor citation (Elbert Luther Kinser; WWII)

• Medal of Honor Given to Greeneville Marine (Knoxville News-Sentinel; May 31, 1946) (p. 1)

• Monument to Memory of Greene County Only CMH Winner Unveiled Sunday (Greeneville Sun; Nov. 11, 1957) (p. 1)

• President Sends Certificate to Parents of Hero (Greeneville Sun; June 1, 1946) (p. 1)

• These Men Won The Medal in World War II (Nashville Tennessean Mag.; March 10, 1963) (p. 11)

• 2024 Heritage Trust Annual Dinner Will Focus On Sgt. Elbert L. Kinser (Greeneville Sun; Oct. 25, 2024)