Carlos Ogden; World War II Medal of Honor Winner

Carlos Ogden, 83, who earned the Medal of Honor for an attack on a German gun emplacement during World War II. On June 25, 1944, then-1st Lt. Ogden single-handedly knocked out a German 88-millimeter cannon and machine-gun nest near Cherbourg, France, despite being wounded, shot twice through the helmet and lying unconscious for a time with a live grenade in one hand. “I knew we were going to get killed if we stayed down there,” Ogden later recalled of being pinned down by the German 88. Ogden fastened a grenade launcher to his rifle and started walking alone up the hill toward the enemy. One grenade almost disabled the 88 but then Ogden was felled by a German bullet. He was still able to stand up and fire another grenade that took out the cannon and a machine-gun nest. Ogden was a native of Illinois and a graduate of Eastern Illinois State University, but chose to settle in San Jose after the war, where he worked as a counselor for the Veterans Administration. Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed Ogden to head the state Selective Service operation in 1967. On Monday of complications from several strokes and a long battle with cancer at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto.