26 Facts About Louis Cukela

Louis Cukela was a Croatian American United States Marine numbered among the nineteen two-time recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Vjekoslav Cukela was born on May 1,1888, in the Dalmatian city of Split, today's Croatia.

Louis Cukela was educated in the grade schools of Split, then attended the Merchant Academy and later, the Royal Gymnasium, both for two year courses.

Louis Cukela was serving as a corporal in Company H, 13th Infantry Regiment in the Philippines.

Seven months after his discharge, on January 31,1917, prior to the United States entry into World War I, Louis Cukela enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

Louis Cukela became a member of the 66th Company, 1st Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment.

Louis Cukela was deployed to France in 1918 and fought in all the engagements in which the 5th Marines participated, from Belleau Wood to the Meuse River Crossing.

Louis Cukela was awarded the Medal of Honor by both the Army and the Navy for the same action on the morning of July 18,1918, near Villers-Cotterets, France, during the Soissons engagement.

The 66th Company, 5th Marines, in which Louis Cukela was then a gunnery sergeant, was advancing through the Forest de Retz when it was held up by an enemy strong point.

Louis Cukela took four prisoners and captured two undamaged machine guns.

Louis Cukela was wounded in action twice but since there is no record of either wound at the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, he was never awarded the Purple Heart.

Louis Cukela was wounded again during the fighting in the Champagne sector.

Louis Cukela received a field appointment to the rank of second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve on September 26,1918, and was selected for a commission in the regular Marine Corps on March 31,1919.

Louis Cukela was one of the US military personnel questioned by a US Senate committee for the atrocities he committed and abuse of power.

Louis Cukela executed a group of prisoners in the middle of a Marine camp there.

From June 1933 to January 1934, Louis Cukela served as a company commander with the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Louis Cukela finally returned to the inactive retired list on May 17,1946.

Louis Cukela served a few days less than 32 years of active duty in the army and Marines.

Louis Cukela was famous for his broken English, best exemplified by his unforgettable saying, "If I want[ed] to send a goddamned fool, I'd go myself".

Louis Cukela was profiled in the August 2018 issue of Naval History magazine.

Louis Cukela crawled out from the flank and made his way toward the German lines in the face of heavy fire, disregarding the warnings of his comrades.

Louis Cukela succeeded in getting behind the enemy position and rushed a machinegun emplacement, killing or driving off the crew with his bayonet.

Louis Cukela visited his childhood home of Sibenik in 1925, publicly displaying his many decorations.

Louis Cukela visited Yugoslavia in 1931 for a congress of expatriates that toured several major cities, and he was granted an audience with King Alexander.

In 1952, a Yugoslav military delegation visited the United States, and a colonel who was a cousin of Louis Cukela's visited him in his home in Bethesda, where Major Louis Cukela had had an old gusle on display.

At the time of his death, Major Louis Cukela was survived by a sister, Mrs Zorka Louis Cukela Dvoracek, of Sibenik, Croatia.