Hier volgt de tekst die in de Associated Press stond.
SAN ANTONIO, May 17 (AP) – Jose M. Lopez, an Army veteran who was awarded the Medal of Honor for killing more than 100 German soldiers in a single engagement in World War II, died here on Monday at the home of a daughter. He was 94.
His death, which followed hospitalization for treatment of cancer, was announced by his family.
The action for which Mr. Lopez received Medal of Honor took place in the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge.
On Dec. 17, 1944, Mr. Lopez was a sergeant serving with the Second Infantry Division in Belgium when a superior force of German infantry and armor advanced on his company’s position.
His Medal of Honor citation, issued in 1945, says that Mr. Lopez jumped into a shallow hole with his heavy machine gun and killed 10 German soldiers. In the face of enemy tank fire, the document says, he held his position and shot 25 more German infantrymen trying to get around his flank. He later took another position and continued firing to slow down enemy forces while members of his unit retreated.
The San Antonio Express-News reported that although his medal citation and most biographies list his birthplace as Mission, Tex., Mr. Lopez was actually born in Santiago Huitlan, Mexico. To join the merchant marine, the newspaper reported, he bought a false birth certificate in 1935.
The Express-News also reported that Mr. Lopez was a boxer in his youth, using the name Kid Mendoza. He held a variety of other jobs, the newspaper reported on its Web site, including picking cotton, before enlisting in the Army in 1942.
His wife of 64 years, the former Emilia Herrera, died in February 2004. His survivors include his son, John Lopez of San Antonio; four daughters, Maggie Wickwire of San Antonio, Candida (Marie) Pierati of Mahopac, N.Y.; Virginia Rogers of Ogden, Utah, and Beatrice Pedraza of Lima, Peru; 19 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
In Bill Moyers documentaire From D-Day to the Rhine had hij een aandeel.
Hij was voor velen een echte held.
