A Maui-born man who mounted a valiant one-man stand during the Korean War against “overwhelming numbers” of enemy troops so fellow soldiers could survive is expected to be approved tomorrow for the Medal of Honor, the highest military award for valor in action against an enemy force.

Army Pfc. Anthony Kahoohanohano of Wailuku, Maui, was in charge of a machine gun squad supporting a company of soldiers in the vicinity of Chup’a-ri, Korea, on Sept. 1, 1951.
Kahoohanohano was with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, of the 7th Infantry Division.
According to a citation for a Distinguished Service Cross previously awarded posthumously to Kahoohanohano, as the men fell back, Kahoohanohano — although already wounded in the shoulder — ordered his squad to a more defensible position while he gathered grenades and returned alone to the machine gun post.
As enemy troops tried to overrrun Kahoohanohano’s position, he fought back with bullets, grenades and then his hands, according to the citation.
“Private Kahoohanohano fought fiercely and courageously, delivering deadly accurate fire into the ranks of the onrushing enemy” until he was killed, the citation states.
A counterattack was launched, and the U.S. troops found 11 dead enemy soldiers in front of Kahoohanohano’s position, and two in the gun emplacement itself who had been beaten to death with an entrenching tool.
The Distinguished Service Cross was presented to the soldier’s family on Maui in 1952.
The family in recent years asked the Army for a review of Kahoohanohano’s bravery, and the Medal of Honor was approved. The award is expected to be finalized tomorrow with President Obama’s signing of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act in the White House Rose Garden.
The Kahoohanohano family is expected to receive the Medal of Honor at a future White House ceremony.