SHAKO: Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

BRAVERY FOR AN ADOPTED COUNTRY.

May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and here at 4GWAR, we thought we’d share some stories of bravery from foreign-born U.S. servicemen from those regions of the world.

HOLLYWOOD ACTOR TURNED U.S. AIRMAN.

If you’re a fan of movies about the Exotic East from the 1930s and 1940s, you probably know Sabu for his roles as Abu in The Thief of Baghdad (1940) or as Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves ,in the  1942 live action version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

But in 1944, after he became a U.S. citizen, the Indian-born movie star joined the U.S. Army Air Forces, and as Corporal Sabu Dastagir, he served as a tail gunner and ball-turret gunner on B-24 Liberator bombers.

Sabu Dastagir during his service in the U.S. Army Air Forces. (Photos Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial website)

Dastagir flew dozens of combat missions in the Pacific Theater with the 370th Bomb Squadron, part of the 307th Bomb Group.. For his valor, he was awarded five air medals, as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross with “Valor,” one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon an Airman.

Sabu in the “Thief of Bagdad,” (1940) United Artists.

Born in 1924 in Mysore, India, Dastagir was discovered at the age of 13 by documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty, who cast him in the role of an elephant driver in the 1937 British film Elephant Boy. He starred alongside Maria Montez and Jon Hall in three films for Universal Pictures: Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943) and Cobra Woman (1944). His Hollywood career declined after World War II, although he did gain significant parts, such as roles in the British films Black Narcissus and The End of the River (both 1947). He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

Sabu died  of a sudden heart attack on December 2, 1963, a month before his 40th birthday

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MEDAL OF HONOR FOR PEACETIME HEROICS.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Telesforo Trinidad rescued some of his shipmates when a boiler exploded on their cruiser in 1915.

His actions made him the only Filipino sailor to receive the Medal of Honor and one of the last service members to earn it for noncombat valor.

Trinidad was born November 25, 1890, in New Washington on the Philippine island of Panay.

In 1901, after the United States acquired the Philippines in the Spanish-American War, President William McKinley established the Insular Force of the U.S. Navy allowing the enlistment of 500 Filipino sailors. Trinidad was so eager to join that when he was 20, he stowed away on a lifeboat from Panay to the main island, Luzon, to enlist at the Cavite Navy Yard.

By 1915, Trinidad was working as a fireman on the armored cruiser USS San Diego. On January 15, 1915, the ship was part of a naval patrol near La Paz, Mexico, in the Gulf of California when one of the boiler tubes had become blocked, causing an explosion that led to a chain reaction.

Trinidad was driven out of fireroom No. 2 by the blast, but immediately went back in and picked up an injured fireman, R.E. Daly. As he was carrying Daly through fireroom No. 4, a second explosion in fireroom No. 3 hit Trinidad, severely burning his face.

The USS San Diego was serving as flagship of the Pacific Fleet when it was photographed on January 28, 1915. (U.S. Navy photo)

Ignoring his own injuries Trinidad kept moving and passed Daly on to someone else. He then returned to fireroom No. 3 to save another man.

Five sailors died and seven others were injured that day, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command. But Trinidad’s heroics helped rescue two, and that earned him the Medal of Honor, which was still being awarded for noncombat valor at the time.

Trinidad remained in the Navy, serving in both world wars. He retired in 1945 and returned to the Philippines. Trinidad died on May 8, 1968, at a hospital at the Cavite Navy Yard, where he began his naval career. He was 77.