Travelling again...

This time, I'm in the birthplace of the US Marine Corps' first African-American female combat pilot.

It's also the home of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 178th Infantry, an Army Natioanl Guard unit recently mobilized for duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It has a number of military monuments, among them the Manuel Perez Jr. Plaza (and an elementary school named for him).

PFC Manuel Perez, Jr. (depicted above), of the US Army's Company A, 511th Parachute Infantry, 11th Airborne Division, earned the Medal of Honor for his actions on February 13, 1945. He was killed in action a week later. From his citation:

"He was lead scout for Company A, which had destroyed 11 of 12 pillboxes in a strongly fortified sector defending the approach to enemy-held Fort William McKinley on Luzon, Philippine Islands. In the reduction of these pillboxes, he killed five Japanese in the open and blasted others in pillboxes with grenades. Realizing the urgent need for taking the last emplacement, which contained two twin-mount .50 caliber dual-purpose machine guns, he took a circuitous route to within 20 yards of the position, killing four of the enemy in his advance. He threw a grenade into the pillbox, and, as the crew started withdrawing through a tunnel just to the rear of the emplacement, shot and killed four before exhausting his clip. He had reloaded and killed four more when an escaping Japanese threw his rifle with fixed bayonet at him. In warding off this thrust, his own rifle was knocked to the ground. Seizing the Japanese rifle, he continued firing, killing two more of the enemy. He rushed the remaining Japanese, killed three of them with the butt of the rifle and entered the pillbox, where he bayoneted the one surviving hostile soldier. Singlehandedly, he killed 18 of the enemies in neutralizing the position that had held up the advance of his entire company. Through his courageous determination and heroic disregard of grave danger, Pfc. Perez made possible the successful advance of his unit toward a valuable objective and provided a lasting inspiration for his comrades."

First one with the correct answer in the comments section or by email gets a copy of a fantastic book I’m currently reading I just finished - "Blood Stripes - The Grunt's View of the War in Iraq," by David J. Danelo

UPDATE: We have a winner