Carl John Pequignot, the phony hero of WWII

Our buddy, Doug Sterner sends us the story of mighty Carl John Pequignot as recorded by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette last year;

John Pequignot was severely wounded three times but not before he killed an estimated 100 enemy soldiers.

He was involved in three of the worst battles of World War II – Saipan , Iwo Jima and Okinawa .

An enemy soldier threw a grenade at Pequignot, who caught it and threw it back. A game of catch ensued and the grenade exploded midair about 10 feet from Pequignot. The blast ripped off much of Pequignot’s face. He would eventually undergo 31 surgeries. Fifteen Marines came forward and donated parts of their hip bones to replace the broken bones in Pequignot’s face. Once home, the Navy again denied Pequignot’s veterans benefits, but the Fort Wayne doctors who fixed his face never billed him a penny, Pequignot said, tears welling in his eyes.

Recuperating in a hospital in Okinawa , Pequignot observed a stranger walking among the cots and staring at several patients before moving to Pequignot’s bedside. Pequignot, who had grabbed the pistol he always kept under his pillow and was now holding it under the sheets, watched the man through half-closed eyes. When the man pulled out a 12-inch knife and prepared to bring it down in Pequignot’s chest, Pequignot fired twice, killing the intruder – whose intention had been to kill and rob some of the patients.

Although the wound bothers him to this day and he had leg surgery as recently as 2010, Pequignot said he has repeatedly been denied compensation or disability because the Navy neglected to document his time overseas.

That article followed another one about Pequinot in the Fort Wayne News Sentinel summarized by Doug;

Credited with saving himself and six other wounded Marines by killing 24 enemy soldiers, John Pequignot was invited to the White House, where the president proclaimed that “no person could do more than this man who unselfishly put his life on the line multiple times” and noted that he had been nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor.

President Harry S. Truman, who presented an honorary sword to Pequignot during his White House visit in July 1946, noted that the citation awarded that day would have been greater if not for Geiger’s nomination, which for some reason fell into a bureaucratic black hole never to re-emerge.

Normally, a Naval Medal of Honor must be awarded within five years of the event. But a member of Congress can request that period be extended, which is why Pequignot’s advocates have been lobbying for Sen. Richard Lugar’s intervention. Joe O’Donnell, Lugar’s legislative assistant, said the numerous letters sent on Pequignot’s behalf have been forwarded to the Navy – without a recommendation from Lugar one way or another. “He wasn’t comfortable doing that. I’m not sure the medal has ever been given this late (after the actual events).”

He also gave this interview to the Library of Congress prompted by Senator Richard Lugar’s office in which he documents his escape as a POW in the Phillipines. Sterner summarizes the video and presents reasons to doubt Pequignot’s tale;

Pequignot was assigned to a PC boat, which hit a mine in November/December 1943. Ten of the 14 men were killed, Pequignot and three others survived. (In fact, the first PC boat damaged or destroyed in the Pacific was PC 1124 which was damaged in the Leyte operation in November 1944, and the first PC Boat destroyed in the Pacific was PC 1129 which was sunk in the Philippines in January 1945. Here are the PC Boat incidents: http://www.ww2pcsa.org/patrol-craft.html

After their PC boat was sunk, Pequignot and his three comrades survived for four days before being picked up by a Japanese submarine, sailed to Manila , and marched inland to be interned in a POW Camp. (Pequignot does NOT appear in any of the WWII POW lists, which are quite complete. There is a James R. Pequignot, U.S. Army Air Forces who was shot down and captured in the European Theater, who was also from Indiana . Could this be an identity of a REAL POW he stole?)

In his LOC interview he talks of the most famous POW in the camp he was in, legendary Gregory “Pappy” Boyington. In fact, Boyington was shot down and held on RABAUL before being sent to a camp in Japan . I am not aware that Boyington was ever held in the Philippine Islands. Boyington was shot down January 4, 1944 .

In his LOC interview he describes how he was rescued. The 6th Army Ranger Battalion trained at Camp Lejeune for the rescue and, in the spring of 1944, landed by submarine off Luzon, marched inland, stormed the POW camp and rescued Pequignot and 600 others, helped them to the coast, where they were recovered by submarine. Of course, the 6th Ranger Battalion DID effect a POW rescue…in January 1945 at Cabanatuan in the incident made famous in the movie “The Great Raid.” There was no attempt in early 1944 to rescue POWs in the PI, and the 6th Rangers were actually just being formed up and prepared to lead the invasion into the Philippine Islands that wasn’t to occur for another six months.

The rescued POWs were taken by submarine to the hospital at Guam …a strange destination in the spring of 1944… Guam was still in Japanese hands. The invasion of Guam did not come until August 1944.

After four weeks of medical training, Pequignot became a Corpsman, landing with Marines at Saipan , Iwo Jima and Okinawa. These were operations by DIFFERENT UNITS, so he must have really been bounced around.

Pequignot induced Senator Lugar to award him a Purple Heart Medal, but according to Doug, the Navy called BS on the citation. Here’s it is for your perusal;

Doug summarizes;

We believe, but haven’t verified, that Peguignot may have been a Navy Boatswain’s Mate First Class serving aboard the Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Shangri-La in World War II. We do not believe he was ever a Corpsman, or ever landed on Japanese-occupied shores. There is no evidence he earned a Silver Star or one, much less three, Purple Hearts. There is no evidence he was every a Prisoner of War.

I especially enjoyed the part wherein Peguinot played “hot potato” with a Japanese soldier with a grenade. I think after the guy thrown the grenade back to me the first time, I would have thrown it somewhere someone wouldn’t be throwing it back to me especially if it hadn’t gone off after three seconds. But that’s just me, I’m just a coward, I guess.

You can tell by the interview video that this isn’t the first time he’s told these tales. I’m surprised that the Library of Congress couldn’t check the chronology of his stories. I mean,they’re a library after all.

Category: Phony soldiers