There was a grenade, and the largest alternative of his life — to be made immediately.
Marine Pfc. James Anderson Jr.’s determination within the Vietnamese jungle on Feb. 28, 1967, is the rationale a ship, a barracks, a eating corridor, a park and a road all have borne his title. And, as of Wednesday, a submit workplace in his hometown: Compton.
Anderson, the primary Black Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor, was acknowledged at a ceremony Wednesday on the former Hub Metropolis Publish Workplace.
“Personal First Class Anderson did one thing that each human being has to go, ‘Would I’ve had the braveness to do what James did?’” mentioned Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), whose district consists of Compton.
Marine Pfc. James Anderson Jr. earned the Medal of Honor for his actions throughout the Vietnam Struggle.
(U.S. Division of Protection)
It took a number of years to safe the title change for the Willowbrook Avenue property. The trouble started beneath Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-San Pedro), whose district beforehand included Compton till reapportionment took impact in 2023. In her remarks, Barragán recalled a 2021 dialog with then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) during which she needed to persuade him to vote for a invoice she had first launched a 12 months earlier that may deliver concerning the renaming.
“I informed him the story … and Kevin at that time was, like, ‘I’m on board,’” mentioned Barragán, whose invoice was signed into legislation by President Biden in December 2022.
Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán congratulates Valencia Vallery, proper, and Melissa Tate, nieces of Marine Pfc. James Anderson Jr., after a Compton submit workplace was named in his honor Wednesday.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
Anderson, who went to Centennial Excessive Faculty, has been honored with namings world wide. In 1985, for instance, a Navy Sealift Command ship was devoted to him in Sparrows Level, Md. It was used to assist a Marine brigade within the Indian Ocean till 2009.
A while after the almost 50-ton ship was retired, Barragán mentioned she remembered considering: “We’ve bought to introduce a invoice to verify we stock on his legacy.”
::
Denise Cross, one in every of Anderson’s nieces, remembered how her uncle, earlier than his deployment, would drive her to elementary college on his technique to Los Angeles Harbor Faculty.
What stood out was his automotive: a 1965 Chevrolet Impala painted Night Orchid, a uncommon coloration obtainable for just one 12 months.
“He would let me sit behind the wheel whereas he washed and polished it,” Cross mentioned in an interview.
In February 1966, with the Vietnam Struggle underway, Anderson enlisted within the Marine Corps. After coaching at Camp Pendleton, he was deployed to Vietnam in December 1966.
Rep. Maxine Waters spoke at a ceremony dedicating a Compton submit workplace within the title of Marine Pfc. James Anderson Jr., a Vietnam Struggle hero, on Wednesday.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
“This was a alternative that he made,” mentioned Cross, who was 5 on the time. “What strikes me now that I’m grandmother is that he was solely 19.”
Simply after Anderson departed for Southeast Asia, she mentioned, his beloved Chevy was stolen. He by no means realized its destiny.
Educated as a rifleman, Anderson discovered himself in Vietnam’s Quang Tri province. On that day in February in 1967, he and his platoon went on a rescue mission to avoid wasting a reconnaissance patrol that had been besieged by North Vietnamese forces. Anderson and his comrades had been in dense jungle after they got here beneath fireplace. Quickly, Anderson was on the bottom with a “tightly packed group of Marines,” in keeping with a U.S. Protection Division account of the episode. The enemy was about 65 toes away.
Then, a grenade lobbed on the Marines landed close to Anderson’s head. With out hesitating, he grabbed the explosive, and pulled it shut, wrapping his physique round it simply earlier than the gadget detonated.
“Anderson’s physique absorbed the blast,” the division mentioned. “He was instantly killed.”
Anderson had simply turned 20.
Due to his selfless actions, no different Marines close to him had been killed.
“If James Anderson had been with us in the present day,” Waters mentioned, “he could be 77 years outdated.”
::
The PFC James Anderson Jr. Publish Workplace was inbuilt 1935 within the civic heart at Willowbrook Avenue and Compton Boulevard. It’s a squat Spanish Revival-structure with a purple tile roof framed by tall palm timber.
Following Anderson’s loss of life, the ability most likely performed a task in directing droves of letters to his household. The story of his valor unfold extensively a 12 months after he was killed, when Anderson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. That result in tons of mail from individuals throughout the nation who wished to supply their condolences.
However, mentioned Cross, who lived with the Anderson household, there was an issue: “They didn’t know our handle.”
“They really despatched letters to the ‘mom of medal of honor recipient’ — they usually had been delivered,” she mentioned. “It’s a sturdy chance these letters went by that submit workplace.”
Now, it bears his title.
Melissa Tate, left, Valencia Vallery and Denise Cross, nieces of Marine Pfc. James Anderson Jr., attended a ceremony dedicating a Compton submit workplace in his title on Wednesday.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
A lot of the occasion on Wednesday was targeted on Anderson’s valorous sacrifice, and rightly so. However, a day earlier, Cross shared a happier story about her uncle — one she relishes telling.
At some point, again within the ’60s, she mentioned, her uncle was washing his prized Impala when an ice cream truck stopped close by. All of the neighborhood youngsters went to position orders — besides one, a boy who sat on the fence as a result of he didn’t have cash for a deal with. Anderson seen the kid, referred to as him over and “informed him to get no matter he wished,” Cross mentioned.
The boy solely wished a pack of baseball playing cards, however Anderson threw in ice cream, in order that he may eat with the others. Cross mentioned that she solely realized that story a couple of decade in the past — when the boy with the baseball playing cards, lengthy since a grown man, reached out to her to share the story.
“What James did for him that day meant a lot to him that he nonetheless felt emotional about it,” she mentioned. “…James was at all times an individual of service.”
