The Life of Marcelino Serna

The Mexican Immigrant Who Became One of America's Most Decorated Soldiers

Three Allied nations pinned their highest military decorations onto the chest of a young Mexican immigrant while General John J. Pershing looked on. France honored him. Italy honored him. The United States honored him. Marcelino Serna became one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War I after volunteering to fight for a country that did not require his service. One distinction remained absent: the Medal of Honor.

The absence has fueled decades of petitions, congressional reviews, and renewed calls for recognition. None of those campaigns change the remarkable path that brought Serna to that ceremony.

Born in 1896 near Chihuahua City, Mexico, Marcelino Serna crossed into the United States in search of work. He found it laying railroad track and harvesting sugar beets in Colorado. In 1917, federal officials detained him during a sweep for suspected draft evaders. After confirming he was a Mexican citizen and exempt from military service, they offered him the chance to return home. Serna declined and volunteered for an army that had no legal authority to draft him.

Thousands of immigrants and non-citizens entered the American military during World War I. The United States Army expanded rapidly after entering World War I, leaving many recruits with only weeks of training before deployment to Europe.

Serna trained for roughly three weeks at Camp Funston, Kansas, before joining Company B of the 355th Infantry Regiment, part of the 89th Division. He spoke little English when he reached France. Battlefield survival depended far more on courage than vocabulary.

His first major test came during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in September 1918. German machine-gun fire pinned down his unit and inflicted heavy casualties. Serna requested permission to advance alone toward the enemy position. Two bullets ricocheted off his helmet during the assault. He reached the machine-gun nest, threw grenades into the emplacement, killed six German soldiers, and captured eight more. The attack eliminated the position and earned the respect of both officers and fellow soldiers.

Weeks later, Serna entered the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest and deadliest campaign in American military history. More than one million U.S. troops participated, and over 26,000 never returned home.

During the offensive, Serna spotted a German sniper, wounded him with his Enfield rifle from approximately 200 yards away, and pursued him back to a fortified trench. Alone, he maneuvered through the position with a rifle, pistol, and grenades, firing from multiple locations until German troops concluded they faced an advancing American force. When the fighting ended, Serna had killed 26 enemy soldiers and accepted the surrender of 24 others.

American troops arriving afterward prepared to kill the prisoners. Serna was credited with stepping between them, refusing to allow the execution of men who had already surrendered. "No, that's not the rules of war," he reportedly said.

A sniper wounded Serna in both legs only four days before the Armistice ended the war. While recovering in a military hospital, he received the Distinguished Service Cross directly from General Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, who rarely presented decorations personally, making the ceremony itself an extraordinary distinction.

Recognition spread beyond the United States. France awarded Serna two Croix de Guerre along with additional decorations. Italy presented him with the Croce al Merito di Guerra. Newspapers in 1919 described him as "the most decorated man in the U.S. Army."

Yet one award remained out of reach.

Serna later said an officer explained he would not receive a Medal of Honor recommendation because he remained a buck private and lacked sufficient English to prepare written reports.

The Medal of Honor represents the nation's highest recognition for battlefield valor. Congress has authorized reviews over several decades, and lawmakers from both political parties, veterans organizations, and military historians have continued pressing for another examination. Incomplete military records, including losses resulting from the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center, have complicated numerous historical award reviews.

The war eventually gave way to an ordinary life. Serna became an American citizen in 1924, the same year Congress enacted the Immigration Act of 1924, a landmark law that reshaped federal immigration policy while largely exempting the Western Hemisphere from its national-origin quota system. He married Simona Jimenez, raised six children, worked for decades at Fort Bliss, and retired as a plumber in 1961.

His family rarely heard stories from the battlefield. They remembered a grandfather tending flowers, spending time with relatives, and avoiding conversations about combat. That life was left behind.

Serna died in 1992, at age 95 and was buried with full military honors at Fort Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso. Texas awarded him the Texas Legislative Medal of Honor in 2022, one hundred years after his extraordinary service captured national attention. The international bridge connecting Tornillo, Texas, with Guadalupe, Chihuahua, now bears his name, linking the country where he sought work with the country he defended in war.

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