Captain Ben Solomon’s Saipan Banzai Charge: WW2 Dentist, Machine Gun Hero

Name: Captain Ben Solomon’s Saipan Banzai Charge: WW2 Dentist, Machine Gun Hero
Uploaded: 2026-10-26T14:13:43+00:00
Duration: 52 min 27 s
Channel: WW2 Records

00:00At 5 o'clock in the morning on July 7, 1944, Captain Benjamin Solomon crouched inside a medical tent on

00:07Saipan

00:07as 3,000 Japanese soldiers charged toward his position from the darkness.

00:12The 29-year-old dentist had volunteered to replace the battalion surgeon 10 days earlier.

00:17He'd never treated combat wounds before that week.

00:20Now, he had 30 wounded men bleeding in his tent and 50 yards of open beach between him and 4

00:27,000 screaming attackers.

00:28The Japanese 43rd Division had lost 25,000 men in three weeks.

00:34The survivors were starving, wounded, running out of ammunition.

00:38But their commander had given them a final order.

00:41Attack at dawn. Kill 10 Americans each. Die with honor.

00:47Most carried rifles. Some had only bayonets tied to sticks.

00:51A few clutched rocks. They were told this was their last morning alive.

00:56Solomon had set up his aid station behind the forward foxholes near Tanapag Village.

01:01Two machine gunners protected the tent.

01:04At 4.45, the first screams echoed across the beach.

01:08Japanese infantry poured through American lines like water through a cracked dam.

01:13The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th Infantry tried to hold.

01:17They had 1,100 men at the start.

01:20Within an hour, 300 were already dead or bleeding out in the sand.

01:24The wounded came fast.

01:26They crawled through the tent flaps, walked in holding their intestines,

01:30got carried in by buddies who then ran back to fight.

01:34Solomon worked on gut wounds, sucking chest wounds, men with legs blown off.

01:38His hands moved fast.

01:41Clamp. Suture. Morphine.

01:43Next patient.

01:44The tent filled with the smell of blood and gunpowder and fear.

01:48Blood soaked through the dirt floor.

01:51Turned the ground into mud.

01:53Solomon's boots stuck with every step.

01:55He moved between patients, checked pulses, made quick decisions about who could be saved,

02:01who needed to go to the rear hospital immediately,

02:03who wouldn't make it past the next 10 minutes.

02:06The sound outside grew louder.

02:09Rifle fire.

02:10Machine gun bursts.

02:12Grenade explosions.

02:13Men screaming in English and Japanese.

02:16The canvas walls of the tent shook from nearby mortar impacts.

02:20Dust fell from the tent poles.

02:22But Solomon kept working.

02:24His hands stayed steady, even when the ground shook.

02:28Then a Japanese soldier appeared at the tent entrance.

02:32He stepped over a wounded American and bayoneted the man lying nearest the canvas wall.

02:37Solomon looked up from the soldier he was treating.

02:40Saw the enemy.

02:42Dropped into a squat.

02:43Grabbed an M1 rifle.

02:45Fired once.

02:46The Japanese soldier fell dead.

02:49Solomon turned back to his patient.

02:52Kept working.

02:53Two more Japanese soldiers pushed through the tent entrance.

02:57American troops near the flaps shot them both.

03:00Four more crawled under the tent walls.

03:02They came in fast, with knives and bayonets.

03:06Solomon was alone.

03:07His medics were loading wounded onto stretchers.

03:10The able-bodied soldiers were already outside fighting.

03:14The first Japanese soldier had a knife.

03:16Solomon kicked it out of his hand.

03:18Shot the second soldier in the chest.

03:21Bayoneted the third through the ribs.

03:23The fourth came at him with a bayonet.

03:26Solomon had no bullets left.

03:28He head-butted the man in the face.

03:30Drove his skull into the soldier's nose and teeth.

03:33The Japanese soldier staggered backward.

03:36A wounded American, lying on a stretcher, pulled his .45 caliber pistol.

03:41Shot the man dead.

03:43Solomon looked around his tent.

03:45Blood everywhere.

03:47Wounded men trying to crawl toward the exit.

03:50Enemy soldiers dead on the dirt floor.

03:53The canvas walls shaking from explosions outside.

03:56More Japanese voices getting closer.

03:59He made a decision.

04:01He ordered everyone out.

04:03The walking wounded helped carry the ones who couldn't move.

04:06Medics grabbed stretchers.

04:08Lifted men as gently as they could, while bullets cracked overhead.

04:13The last orderly looked back as he ducked through the tent flap.

04:16Saw Solomon grab a rifle from one of the wounded men.

04:20Saw him check the magazine.

04:21Saw him turn toward the entrance and run outside.

04:24Four Americans had been manning a Browning M1917 machine gun in a sandbag position 30 feet from the tent.

04:31All four were dead.

04:34Japanese soldiers were swarming past their position.

04:37Solomon ran to the gun, dropped behind it, started firing.

04:41The Browning was a water-cooled .30 caliber machine gun, weighed 41 pounds without water, could fire 450 rounds per

04:50minute.

04:50Solomon had trained on this weapon two years earlier when he was an infantry sergeant, before the army forced him

04:57to become a dentist, before they told him his hands were too valuable to waste on a machine gun.

05:02If you want to see how this dentist held off thousands of attacking soldiers, please hit that like button.

05:09It helps us share more forgotten stories like Ben's.

05:12Please subscribe if you haven't already.

05:15Back to Solomon.

05:16He fired in controlled bursts, swept left to right across the charging mass of Japanese infantry.

05:22The gun bucked against his shoulder, spent brass casings piled up at his feet.

05:28Enemy soldiers fell in groups.

05:2910, 20, 30.

05:32They kept coming, climbed over their own dead to reach American lines.

05:38Solomon took a bullet in his left arm, kept firing, took another in his shoulder, adjusted his grip.

05:44The bodies were piling up in front of his position, 15 feet away, 10 feet, 5.

05:50He couldn't see past the stack of corpses, couldn't get a clear field of fire.

05:55The gun was still working.

05:57The water jacket was boiling hot.

05:59But the dead were blocking his view.

06:01He grabbed the 41-pound gun, dragged it backward.

06:05Blood from his wounds left a trail in the dirt.

06:08He repositioned, started firing again.

06:11More Japanese fell.

06:13The pile of bodies grew higher.

06:15Again, the corpses blocked his line of sight.

06:18Again, he moved the gun.

06:20Four times he would drag that heavy weapon to a new position.

06:23Four times he would leave a blood trail.

06:27Each time, the enemy kept coming through the darkness.

06:30The sun was rising over Saipan.

06:32Solomon's war had just begun.

06:37Benjamin Solomon hadn't planned to become a soldier.

06:40He'd graduated from USC dental school in 1937, opened a practice in Los Angeles,

06:46treated movie stars and businessmen, made good money, had a comfortable life ahead of him.

06:51Then came September 1940.

06:53The Selective Service Act passed.

06:55His draft notice arrived two weeks later.

06:57He reported as an infantry private.

07:00The Army looked at his records, saw he was a dentist, told him he'd be transferred to the

07:05dental corps within months.

07:06Solomon asked to stay in infantry.

07:08The Army said no.

07:10He ignored them.

07:11Kept training with his rifle company.

07:13He was 5'9", weighed 160 pounds, not big, but he moved fast, learned fast.

07:21At the rifle range, he qualified as expert marksman with both the M1 rifle and the .45 caliber pistol,

07:27hit targets other men missed.

07:30His company commander noticed, started using him as an instructor for the new recruits.

07:35Within a year, Solomon made sergeant, got put in charge of a machine gun section.

07:40The Browning M1917 became his weapon.

07:43He stripped it blindfolded, cleared jams in seconds, taught his gunners how to traverse and

07:49fire in coordinated bursts.

07:50His section had the lowest malfunction rate in the battalion.

07:54His commanding officer called him the best all-around soldier in the regiment.

07:58Then, in August 1942, the orders came.

08:02The Army was transferring him to the Dental Corps, making him a first lieutenant.

08:07Solomon tried to refuse, said he wanted to stay with his gun team.

08:11The Army didn't care what he wanted.

08:13A month later, he was wearing Dental Corps insignia and working on soldiers' teeth in Hawaii.

08:19He hated it, spent his mornings pulling wisdom teeth and filling cavities,

08:23spent his afternoons running with the infantry companies, did every training march,

08:28every physical fitness test, competed against front-line soldiers half his age, usually one.

08:35His fellow dental officers thought he was crazy.

08:37The infantry officers loved him.

08:39They knew what they had, a dentist who could out-shoot most riflemen,

08:43a medical officer who understood tactics better than some company commanders.

08:48In May 1943, he got assigned to the 105th Infantry Regiment as Regimental Dental Officer.

08:54Made captain in January 1944, still ran with the troops, still competed in rifle competitions,

09:02still taught infantry tactics to anyone who would listen.

09:05When the regiment shipped out to Saipan in June, Solomon went with them.

09:09The 27th Infantry Division hit the beaches on June 15th.

09:13The fighting was worse than anyone expected.

09:16Japanese defenders had fortified Mount Tapochao, dug caves into the cliffs, built bunkers with

09:22interlocking fields of fire. Every hundred yards cost American lives.

09:26The 2nd Battalion took the worst of it. The battalion advanced through cane fields and jungle,

09:32took casualties from snipers, from mortars, from machine gun nests hidden in the rocks,

09:37lost 30 men in the first week, 50 in the second. On June 22nd, a Japanese mortar round hit the

09:44battalion command post, killed two men, wounded the battalion surgeon. Shrapnel tore through his leg.

09:50He couldn't walk, couldn't operate, needed evacuation. The battalion commander needed a

09:55replacement, asked who could handle combat surgery. Someone mentioned Solomon. The captain was a dentist,

10:01but he had steady hands, knew basic anatomy, could handle pressure, had taken extra medical training in

10:07Hawaii. Solomon volunteered immediately, finally got his chance to be at the front. He set up aid stations

10:13behind the advancing infantry, treated sucking chest wounds, amputated mangled limbs, worked under fire,

10:20stayed calm when mortars landed close enough to spray his tent with dirt. The wounded men trusted him,

10:26called him Doc, didn't care that he was trained to fix teeth instead of bullet wounds. The officers respected

10:32him, saw he worked faster under pressure than most surgeons. After 10 days, he'd saved dozens of lives.

10:39Lost some too. The ones who came in with half their chest blown away. The ones who'd bled too much

10:45before they reached him. He did what he could. Moved on to the next patient. Didn't have time to think

10:52about the ones he couldn't save. Then came July 6th. Intelligence reports warned of a major Japanese attack.

11:00The entire 43rd Division was cornered in the northern part of the island. 30,000 men three weeks ago. Now,

11:09maybe 5,000 left. Starving. Desperate. No way off the island. American commanders expected a bonsai charge.

11:20The biggest one yet. Every battalion reinforced their positions. Fixed bayonets. Stacked extra ammunition

11:27in the foxholes. Dug their fighting positions deeper. Set up interlocking fields of fire. Machine

11:34gunners checked their weapons three times. Made sure the water jackets were full. Made sure the

11:39ammunition belts fed smoothly. That evening, Solomon's aid station sat 50 yards behind the forward line.

11:47A small tent. Two machine gunners for protection. 30 yards from the beach. He had bandages ready. Plasma.

11:56Morphine. Morphine. Surgical tools laid out on a field table. Expected maybe 20 casualties in the

12:02first hour. Had no idea what was actually coming. At 4.45, the screaming started. Thousands of voices in

12:12the darkness. The Japanese came in waves. Crashed into American positions like a human suit. Then, with enemy

12:19soldiers who wanted to kill them all. Now, Salomon sat behind a machine gun. Firing at shadows in the

12:25pre-dawn darkness. Already wounded twice. The ammunition belt running low. And somewhere out there

12:32in the black, thousands more Japanese soldiers were charging straight toward him. The Browning M1917 had

12:42been designed in the First World War. Weighed 41 pounds with an empty water jacket. Add water and it

12:49hit 93 pounds. Tripod added another 53 pounds. Total weight? 146 pounds for a complete system. Took a four

12:59man crew to move it efficiently. Salomon was dragging it alone while bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds.

13:05The gun used .30 caliber ammunition. Same as the M1 rifle. Each round was 3.3 inches long. Weighed half

13:13an ounce. Left the barrel at 2800 feet per second. Could punch through a man at 500 yards. Could kill

13:21at

13:221500 yards if the shooter knew what he was doing. Salomon knew what he was doing. He'd moved the gun

13:28twice

13:28already. Each time the bodies piled up. Each time he lost his field of fire. Now he was repositioning

13:36again. Grabbed the barrel jacket. Burned his hands on the superheated metal. Didn't let go. Dragged the

13:43weapon backward 10 feet. Left a blood trail in the dirt. Dropped behind it. Started firing again.

13:49The sun was coming up. He could see them now. Not just shadows and muzzle flashes. Actual men.

13:56Japanese infantry in tattered uniforms. Some in just loincloths. Many wounded already. Bandages

14:03on their heads. Arms in slings. They came forward anyway. Screaming. Bayonets raised. Eyes wide with

14:11desperation and rage. Salomon fired in three round bursts. Traverse left. Traverse right. Each burst

14:19dropped one or two attackers. They fell in heaps. The ones behind climbed over. Used the

14:25corpses as cover. Advanced through the growing wall of their own dead. Some got within 20 feet of his

14:32position before the bullets found them. His left arm wasn't working right. The bullet had clipped

14:37something important. Muscle or nerve. He couldn't lift it above his shoulder. Used his right hand to work

14:43the trigger. Used his left to steady the gun. Ignored the pain. Ignored the blood running down his sleeve.

14:50Focused on the targets. More bullets hit him. One through his right thigh. Another in his lower

14:56abdomen. Another in his chest. Each impact felt like getting hit with a sledgehammer. Knocked the

15:03wind out of him. Made his vision blur. He blinked. Shook his head. Kept firing. The gun was still working.

15:09He still had ammunition. He still had targets. Behind him, the American lines were collapsing.

15:17The first battalion had been overrun in the first hour. The second battalion was fighting hand to hand

15:22in their foxholes. Men were dying in groups. Entire squads wiped out. The Japanese pushed deeper into

15:29American positions. Reached the battalion command post. Killed the staff officers. Captured the radio

15:35equipment. But the wounded were getting away. The men Solomon had evacuated from his tent were

15:41crawling toward the rear. Being carried by medics who'd followed his orders. Making it to the regimental

15:46aid station a quarter mile back. Thirty men who would have died in that tent if he hadn't held this

15:52position. Thirty men who might survive because a dentist remembered how to work a machine gun.

15:59The Japanese commander had ordered his men to break through at any cost. Didn't matter how many

16:04died. Just had to push through the American lines. Reach the artillery positions. Destroy the guns.

16:10Kill everyone they could find. Die with honor. His troops were following orders. Four thousand

16:17men charging into machine gun fire. Dying in waves. But still advancing. Solomon's ammunition belt was

16:24running low. Maybe two hundred rounds left. He could see at least three hundred Japanese soldiers still

16:31coming toward his position. More behind them. The math didn't work. He was going to run out of bullets

16:37before he ran out of targets. His chest wound was bad. He could feel it. Breathing was getting harder.

16:44Each breath rattled. Blood in his lungs probably. He'd seen enough chest wounds to know what that meant.

16:50Hours maybe. Not days. Maybe not even hours. But those thirty men needed more time. The medics needed to

16:58get them farther back. The regimental aid station needed to set up triage. Prepare for the casualties

17:04still coming. Every minute he held this position bought them time. Bought them lives. He fired another

17:11burst. Five rounds. Three Japanese soldiers dropped. Two kept coming. He adjusted his aim. Fired again.

17:19They fell. More appeared behind them. Always more behind them. A bayonet thrust came from his left. He hadn't

17:27seen the soldier crawling through the bodies. The blade caught him in the side. Drove between his

17:32ribs. He twisted away. The soldier tried to stab him again. Solomon grabbed the rifle barrel with his

17:38left hand. His weak hand. The one that barely worked. Used it to shove the bayonet aside. Used his right

17:45hand

17:45to pull his .45 caliber pistol. Fired three times into the soldier's chest. The man fell across the sandbags.

17:53Solomon dropped the pistol. Grabbed the machine gun again. Started firing. His vision was fading.

17:59Getting darker around the edges. Shock probably. Blood loss. The chest wound. All of it together.

18:06He blinked hard. Tried to focus. The targets were right there. Twenty feet away. Ten feet. Still coming.

18:14The gun was almost empty. The water in the jacket was boiling. Steam hissed from the valve. The barrel

18:21was probably warped from sustained fire. Didn't matter. It was still shooting. He was still shooting.

18:28And the Japanese were still dying in front of his position. Then the ammunition belt ran out.

18:35Solomon looked at the empty ammunition belt. Looked at the Japanese soldier still advancing.

18:40Looked at his pistol lying on the sandbags. Three rounds left. Maybe. Four if he was lucky. He'd

18:47lost count after shooting the soldier with the bayonet. He grabbed the pistol. Aimed at the nearest

18:53target. Fifteen feet away. Fired. The soldier dropped. Aimed at another. Fired. Another drop.

19:01Two rounds left. Maybe one. He couldn't remember. His mind was getting foggy. The blood loss was

19:08catching up to him. A Japanese soldier reached the sandbags. Jumped over. Bayonet aimed at Solomon's

19:15chest. Solomon fired his last round. Point-blank range. The soldier's head snapped back. Fell on top

19:22of him. Solomon shoved the body aside. The pistol was empty now. The machine gun was empty. He had no

19:29ammunition left. But he still had the gun itself. Forty-one pounds of steel and wood. He grabbed it by

19:36the

19:36barrel jacket. Ignored the burns on his palms. Swung it like a club. Caught a Japanese soldier

19:42in the face. The man's jaw shattered. Teeth flew. He dropped. Another soldier came at him. Solomon swung

19:50again. Hit him in the ribs. Heard bones crack. The soldier fell. Another one. Solomon couldn't lift the

19:57gun anymore. His arms wouldn't work. The wounds were too much. He dropped the browning. Fell to his knees

20:03behind the sandbags. A bayonet thrust came at his chest. He caught the rifle barrel with both hands.

20:10Held it. The Japanese soldier pushed. Solomon pushed back. His hands were slippery with blood.

20:16His own blood. He couldn't hold on. The bayonet drove into his chest. Three inches deep. Maybe four.

20:24He felt it scrape against his ribs. The soldier pulled the bayonet out. Thrust again. Solomon couldn't

20:31stop at this time. The blade went in. Came out. Went in again. He counted the impacts. Lost count after

20:38six. Everything was getting dark. Cold. His legs weren't working. He slumped forward over the machine

20:45gun. His face pressed against the water jacket. Still warm from all that firing. Comfortable almost.

20:51He could hear fighting. Screaming. Explosions. But it all seemed far away now. Like listening to a radio

20:59in another room. The sounds faded. Everything faded. The Japanese kept coming. Poured through the gap in

21:06the American lines. Reached the artillery positions. The gunners fought them with pistols and rifle butts.

21:13Hand to hand in the gun pits. The attack lasted 15 hours total. From 4.45 in the morning until

21:19nearly

21:20eight at night. The American 2nd battalion took 83% casualties. 919 men dead or seriously wounded

21:28out of 1,108 total. The 1st battalion lost almost as many. But they held. The Japanese attack failed.

21:36By nightfall, the survivors were retreating north. Fewer than 500 left out of 4,000 who charged that

21:43morning. American troops retook the lost positions on July 8th. Found Salomon's body slumped over his machine

21:49gun. His shirt had been pulled up to his waist. Probably by Japanese soldiers checking if he was

21:55dead. Making sure. Bayoneting him a few more times to be certain. Around his position they counted the

22:01bodies. 98 Japanese soldiers laid dead in front of his gun. Piled three and four deep in some places.

22:08The counting party followed the blood trail. Found where he'd moved the gun. Once. Twice. Three times.

22:15Four times total. Each time dragging that 93 pound weapon while bleeding from fatal wounds. Each time

22:23setting up and firing again. Captain Edmund Love was the 27th division historian. He walked through the

22:29scene with the counting party. Saw the blood. Saw the bodies. Saw the empty ammunition belts and spent brass

22:36casings scattered everywhere. He started taking notes immediately. This was a medal of honor action.

22:42No question. They examined Salomon's body. Counted the wounds. 76 bullet holes. Multiple bayonet wounds.

22:50Too many to count accurately. The division surgeon came forward. Looked at the wounds carefully. Made an

22:56estimate. 24 of the wounds had happened while Salomon was still alive. The rest came after he was already

23:03dead. After he'd slumped over that gun. Love collected eyewitness statements. Found the medics

23:09who'd evacuated the wounded from the tent. Found soldiers who'd seen Salomon run to the machine gun.

23:14Found the ones who'd watched him fire into the Japanese attack. He compiled everything. Wrote the

23:20Medal of Honor recommendation. Submitted it up the chain of command. Major General George Griner read

23:26the recommendation. Read it again. Called his staff together. They discussed it for an hour. Then

23:32Griner made his decision. He denied the award. His reasoning was simple. Salomon had been wearing

23:39a Red Cross Brassard on his arm. He was a medical officer. Under the Geneva Convention, medical personnel

23:45cannot bear arms against the enemy. Salomon had not only carried arms. He'd manned a machine gun. A

23:52crew served weapon. Killed nearly a hundred enemy soldiers. That violated the rules. Love was furious.

23:59argued that Salomon had acted in defense of his patients. That he'd removed the Brassard before

24:04taking up arms. That the Geneva Convention allowed medical personnel to defend themselves and their

24:10patients. Griner wouldn't budge. The recommendation was denied. Filed away. Forgotten. The war moved on.

24:18The 27th Division left Saipan. Fought on Okinawa. Lost more men. Love kept his notes. Kept the witness

24:26statements. Kept thinking about Ben Solomon lying dead over that machine gun. About those 98 Japanese

24:32soldiers he'd killed. About the 30 wounded Americans he'd saved. 1945 came. The war ended. The division

24:40went home. Love went back to civilian life. But he couldn't let it go. That denial still burned.

24:47Seven years later he tried again. In 1951. Love resubmitted the medal of honor recommendation.

24:56He'd left the army. Was working as a writer. But he still had all his notes from Saipan. All the

25:02witness

25:02statements. The photographs of Salomon's body. The count of 98 dead Japanese soldiers. He typed up a new

25:10recommendation. Sent it through the office of the Chief of Military History. Six months later it came

25:16back. Denied again. New reason this time. The time limit for submitting World War II awards had expired.

25:24There was a deadline. Five years after the end of hostilities. That deadline had passed in 1950.

25:30Too late now. File closed. Love tried to argue. Said the original recommendation had been submitted in 1944.

25:38During the war. Within days of the action. That should count. The army disagreed. The original recommendation

25:46had been denied. This was a new submission. New submissions had to follow the time limit. Case closed.

25:53He put the file away. Went on with his life. But he never forgot. Never stopped thinking about it. That

26:00dentist

26:01who'd saved 30 men. Who'd killed 98 enemies. Who died alone behind a machine gun while the rest of his

26:08battalion retreated. Who got nothing for it except a grave at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

26:13The years passed. The Korean War came and went. Vietnam started. The army got bigger. Got smaller.

26:21Changed uniforms. Changed tactics. Changed everything except his decision about Ben Solomon. Then in 1969.

26:30Someone else tried. Lieutenant General Hal Jennings. The Surgeon General of the United States Army.

26:36He'd heard about Solomon. Read Love's original report. Decided this was wrong. A medical officer had saved

26:44lives and taken lives. And got punished for it by being denied recognition. Jennings submitted a new

26:50Medal of Honor recommendation. It moved up the chain. Reached Stanley Rezor. The Secretary of the Army. Rezor read the

26:58file.

26:58Read the witness statements. Read about the 98 dead enemies. About the four times Solomon moved that gun.

27:05About the 76 bullet wounds. Rezor approved it. Forwarded the recommendation to the Secretary of Defense.

27:13The Secretary of Defense sat on it for two years. Didn't approve. Didn't deny. Just sat there on someone's desk

27:20gathering dust. Then in 1972 it came back. Denied again. The reason was vague. Based on circumstantial

27:30information. Not enough direct witnesses. Too much time had passed. The usual bureaucratic language that

27:37meant no without saying no. Jennings was furious. Tried to push it through again. Got stonewalled.

27:44The Defense Department wouldn't budge. By this point, most of the witnesses were dead. The 2nd Battalion had

27:51taken heavy casualties on Okinawa. Only about 30 men from the Saipan battle survived the entire war.

27:58Most were scattered across the country now. Hard to find. Hard to verify their stories decades later.

28:04The Army tried to honor Solomon in other ways. In 1973, they dedicated a dental clinic at Fort Benning to

28:12his memory.

28:12Named it the Captain Ben L. Solomon Dental Clinic. Put up a plaque with his story. It was something. But

28:20it wasn't

28:20the Medal of Honor. USC kept his memory alive too. The dental school had a display. Photographs of him in

28:27uniform.

28:28His dental degree. A replica of his captain's bars. Alumni knew his story. Talked about him. The Jewish

28:36dentist who'd tried to join the Army before the war started. Who got rejected. Who got drafted anyway.

28:42Who died defending his patients on a beach in the Pacific. The 1980s came. Then the 90s. Solomon's

28:49story faded. Became one of thousands of World War II tales that nobody remembered anymore. The men who'd

28:56known him were dying off. The officers who'd recommended him for the Medal of Honor were dead.

29:01Even Edmund Love died in 1990. Took his frustration about that denied recommendation to his grave.

29:08But the file still existed. Buried in the archives at the office of the Chief of the Dental Corps.

29:13Forgotten. Gathering dust. Until 1995 when an Army dentist named Colonel John King was doing research

29:21for a book about the dental corps in Vietnam. He was digging through old files. Looking for interesting

29:27stories. Found Ben Solomon's case. King read the witness statements. Read about the machine gun.

29:34The 98 dead Japanese. The 76 wounds. The four times Solomon moved that gun while dying. King couldn't

29:42believe it. This was a Medal of Honor action. Clear as day. Why hadn't he gotten it?

29:48He dug deeper. Found the denial from 1944. Found the Geneva Convention argument. Found all the subsequent

29:56denials. Found Love's attempts. Found Jennings's attempt. Found 50 years of bureaucratic rejections.

30:04King decided someone needed to try again. Around the same time, Dr. Robert West was working at USC. He was

30:12an

30:12alumnus of the dental school. Was helping write a book for the school's centennial anniversary.

30:17Started researching notable alumni. Found Ben Solomon's story. Got obsessed with it.

30:23Started asking questions. Someone put West in touch with King. They compared notes. Realized they were

30:30both working on the same case. Decided to team up. King had the military connections. West had the civilian

30:38connections. Together, they might actually get this done. West contacted Congressman Brad Sherman.

30:45Sherman represented the district that included USC. West laid out the case. Showed him the evidence. The

30:52witness statements. The photographs. The body count. Sherman agreed to help. Started pushing the case

30:58through Congress. This time, they had something the previous attempts didn't have. Public attention. Media

31:05coverage. USC got involved officially. The dental school made it a cause. Alumni started writing

31:12letters. Veterans groups joined in. The pressure built. The case moved through channels again. Slowly.

31:19The Army reviewed it. The Medal of Honor Board reviewed it. They looked at the Geneva Convention question

31:25again. Decided that Solomon had been acting in defense of his patients. That he'd removed his Red Cross

31:31Broussard before taking up the machine gun. That the rules allowed medical personnel to use weapons

31:37in self-defense. In 2001, Congress passed legislation waiving the time limit for Solomon's award.

31:45President George W. Bush signed it. The path was clear. On May 1, 2002, 58 years after Ben Solomon died

31:54on

31:54that beach. Bush presented the Medal of Honor to Dr. Robert West in the Rose Garden. West accepted it

32:01on behalf of USC's School of Dentistry. The ceremony took place in the Rose Garden on a sunny May afternoon.

32:10President Bush stood at the podium. Dr. Robert West stood beside him. Veterans from the 27th Infantry

32:17Division were in the audience. Some in wheelchairs now. Some using canes. All in their 80s. All

32:24remembering Saipan. Bush read the citation. Every word of it. Captain Ben L. Solomon was serving at

32:33Saipan in the Marianas Islands on July 7, 1944, as the surgeon for the 2nd Battalion, 105th Infantry

32:41Regiment, 27th Infantry Division. The regiment's 1st and 2nd battalions were attacked by an overwhelming

32:47force estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 Japanese soldiers. The citation described the tent. The

32:54wounded men. The Japanese soldiers crawling under the canvas walls. Solomon kicking the knife. Shooting.

33:02Bayonetting. Headbutting. Ordering the evacuation. Running to the machine gun. The four times he moved it.

33:09The 98 dead enemies. The 76 bullet wounds. Bush finished reading. Looked out at the audience. Said

33:18Solomon was one young man who was the match for 100. A person of true valor who now receives the

33:25honor

33:25due him from a grateful country. He presented the medal to West. West accepted it with tears in his eyes.

33:32The medal went back to USC, put on display at the dental school, where it sits today. Ben Solomon

33:39became only the 3rd dentist in American military history to receive the Medal of Honor. The 1st was

33:46Whedon Osborne in World War I. The 2nd was Alexander Gordon Lyle in the same war. Solomon was the 3rd.

33:54And so far, the last. He was also one of only 3 Jewish Americans to receive the Medal of Honor

34:01for World War II actions. The other two were Raymond Zussman and Ben Schwartzwalder. All three fought in

34:08different theaters. All three performed actions far beyond normal duty. All three survived in memory

34:15long after they died in battle. Two other men received the Medal of Honor for actions during that

34:20same Banzai attack on July 7th. Lieutenant Colonel William O'Brien commanded the 1st Battalion. When the

34:27Japanese overran his position, he manned a jeep-mounted machine gun. Killed dozens of attackers. Got shot

34:33multiple times. Kept fighting. Died still firing his pistol at advancing Japanese soldiers. Private 1st

34:41Class Thomas Baker was a rifleman in the same battalion. Got shot in the initial attack. Too badly wounded to

34:47move. His squad tried to carry him. He refused. Told them to leave him. They propped him against a tree.

34:54Left him a

34:55pistol with 8 rounds. When they came back the next day, they found him dead. His pistol was empty.

35:01Eight dead Japanese soldiers lay around his position. O'Brien and Baker both got the Medal of Honor

35:07in 1945. Right after the war ended. No questions about Geneva Conventions. No debates about medical

35:14personnel. No 58-year wait. Just immediate recognition for immediate heroism. Solomon had to wait,

35:21because he was a dentist who'd picked up a gun. The citation that finally came made him one of fewer

35:27than 4,000 Americans who've received the Medal of Honor since it was created in 1861. One of 353 who

35:35received it for World War II actions. One of 94 who received it posthumously for actions in the Pacific

35:41Theater. His grave at Forest Lawn Memorial Park has a new marker now. List his rank, his unit,

35:48his Medal of Honor. Visitors come sometimes. Leave coins on the headstone like they do at military graves.

35:55Quarters mostly. Means someone who served with the deceased came to pay respects. Ben Solomon gets a

36:01lot of quarters. USC added his name to their Veterans Memorial. The dental school made his story part of

36:07their standard curriculum. Every incoming class learns about him. About the dentist who wanted to

36:13be an infantryman. Who got forced into dentistry by the army. Who ended up doing both jobs on the same

36:19day. The army uses his story in training now. Combat medics learn about him. About the line between

36:25being a non-combatant and defending your patients. About when it's acceptable to take up arms. About what it

36:32means to hold a position alone against overwhelming odds. Military historians study that Banzai attack.

36:39The largest of the Pacific War. 4,000 attackers. 15 hours of fighting. 83% casualties in two American

36:47battalions. It was the kind of desperate, suicidal assault that characterized the last year of the

36:53Pacific Campaign. The kind that made American commanders realize invading Japan itself would cost

37:00hundreds of thousands of lives. The kind that led directly to the decision to use atomic bombs.

37:06Saipan changed the war. Gave America air bases within bombing range of Japan.

37:11Led to the B-29 raids on Tokyo. Led to the firebombing that killed more civilians than both atomic bombs

37:18combined. Led to Japan's eventual surrender. Ben Solomon died in the battle that made all of that possible.

37:24His battalion was rebuilt after Saipan. Got replacements. Trained them. Shipped them to Okinawa.

37:31Fought there too. Lost more men. The survivors went home when the war ended. Scattered across America.

37:38Went to college on the GI Bill. Started families. Started businesses. Got old. Started dying off.

37:45The last survivor of that Banzai attack died in 2018. He was 94 years old. Had been 18 on Saipan.

37:52Remembered the screaming. The bodies. The machine gun fire that lasted all night.

37:58Remembered a dentist who'd patched him up three days before the attack.

38:02Remembered hearing later that the dentist had died manning a machine gun.

38:06Saved a bunch of wounded guys. Killed nearly a hundred Japanese. Got nothing for it.

38:12When they told him in 2002 that Solomon finally got his medal, he cried. Said it was about time.

38:18Said Ben had saved his life. Twice. Once by patching his wounds. Once by holding that machine gun

38:25position long enough for the medics to get him out. Said he'd waited 60 years to see that dentist get

38:30recognized. Now they're all gone. The men who fought on Saipan. The men who saw Solomon die.

38:37The men who counted those 98 bodies. All dead.

38:42Only the records remain. The witness statements. The photographs. The citation. The medal at USC.

38:49And one question that nobody alive can answer anymore. What was going through Ben Solomon's

38:54mind during those final minutes? He knew he was dying. The chest wound told him that. The blood in his

39:02lungs. The way breathing got harder with each minute. He'd treated enough chest wounds to recognize the signs.

39:09Hours at best. Maybe less. Probably less given how much blood he was losing from the other wounds.

39:16He knew his patients were getting away. The medics had followed his orders. Evacuated the tent.

39:22Carried the wounded toward the regimental aid station. Every minute he held this position gave them more

39:27distance. More time. Better odds of survival. He knew the math. Thirty wounded men versus one dentist.

39:35Easy calculation. Thirty lives worth more than one. He'd made that calculation dozens of times in the past

39:43week. Which patient gets the plasma? Which patient gets evacuated first? Which patient gets the morphine?

39:50Always calculating. Always choosing. This was just another choice. He knew the gun. Had trained on it for a

39:58year before the army made him a dentist. Knew how to clear jams. Knew how to traverse. Knew how to

40:04fire in

40:05controlled bursts to prevent overheating. Knew all of it. The muscle memory was still there even after two

40:12years of pulling teeth instead of triggers. He knew he wasn't going home. That was clear from the start.

40:18From the moment he ran to that machine gun. From the moment he saw how many Japanese were attacking.

40:24Four thousand soldiers charging toward a few hundred Americans. The only question was how long he could

40:30hold. How many he could kill. How much time he could buy. But what else did he think about in

40:36those final

40:37minutes? What goes through a man's mind when he knows death is coming and keeps fighting anyway? Maybe he

40:43thought about his family. His parents back in Milwaukee. Wondered if they'd ever know how he died. If they'd get

40:50a

40:50telegram saying killed in action. If they'd understand what that meant. If they'd be proud or just sad.

40:57Maybe he thought about his dental practice in Los Angeles. The office he'd built. The patients he'd

41:03treated. The comfortable life he'd walked away from when that draft notice came. Wondered if it had been

41:08worth it. If anything he'd done made a difference. Maybe he thought about the men he'd saved. The 30 in

41:15the

41:15tent. The dozens more over the past 10 days. The ones who'd live because he'd clamped an artery or

41:22packed a wound. Or kept them alive long enough to reach the hospital. Wondered if they'd remember him.

41:28If they'd tell their family someday about the dentist who turned surgeon. Maybe he thought about the men he

41:34couldn't save. The ones who died on his operating table. The ones who'd bled out before reaching him.

41:40The ones he'd given morphine. And told them it would be okay. When he knew it wouldn't.

41:46The guilt that comes with being a doctor. With having to choose. Maybe he thought about the

41:52Japanese soldiers he was killing. Wondered if they had families. If they'd been drafted like him.

41:58If they wanted to be here any more than he did. Or maybe he didn't think about that at all.

42:04Maybe when you're fighting for your life. And your patients lives. The enemy is just targets.

42:10Just threats to eliminate. Maybe he thought about nothing at all. Maybe the pain was too much.

42:17The blood loss too severe. The adrenaline too high. Maybe his world had narrowed to just the gun

42:25and the targets and the trigger. Fire. Traverse. Fire. Reload. Fire. Nothing else existing except the

42:35immediate action of staying alive long enough to kill the next attacker. Medical science can tell

42:42us what was happening to his body. The 76 bullet wounds. The bayonet wounds. The blood loss. The shock.

42:49The way his organs were shutting down one by one. Heart rate increasing as blood pressure dropped.

42:57Breathing becoming rapid and shallow. Vision narrowing. Consciousness fading.

43:02A human body holds about 5 liters of blood. Lose 30 percent and you go into hemorrhagic shock.

43:09Lose 40 percent and you start losing consciousness. Lose 50 percent and you die. Solomon lost more than 50

43:18percent. Had to have. The blood trail alone showed that. Four separate locations. Four times he moved

43:25that gun. Four blood trails leading from one position to the next. The human body can do remarkable things

43:31when it has to. Adrenaline overrides pain. Redirects blood flow to essential organs. Keeps you conscious

43:38when you should be passing out. Keeps you fighting when you should be dead. But it has limits. Even

43:44adrenaline has limits. Those limits were approaching fast for Ben Solomon. The ammunition was gone.

43:50The pistol was empty. He'd used the machine gun as a club until he couldn't lift it anymore. He'd

43:56taken bayonet thrusts that should have killed him immediately. Should have pierced his heart or lungs

44:01or major arteries. Some probably did. He kept fighting anyway. The Japanese soldiers who finally killed

44:08him probably couldn't believe what they were seeing. This American who wouldn't die. Who kept

44:14getting up. Kept swinging. Kept fighting even with a dozen bayonet wounds. They stabbed him again and

44:20again. Made sure he was dead. Stabbed him some more after he was dead. Just to be certain. When the

44:28counting party found him the next day, they could see what had happened. The defensive wounds on his hands.

44:33The way he'd fallen forward over the gun. The blood trail showing he'd tried to move it one more time.

44:39Failed. Collapsed there. Died there. Alone except for 98 dead enemies.

44:46Edmund Love described it in his report. Said you could visualize Solomon wounded and bleeding.

44:52Trying to drag that gun a few more feet. The blood on the ground showing how hard it must have

44:57been.

44:57Especially that last move. When his strength was almost gone. When death was moments away. When he

45:04moved the gun anyway because he wasn't done yet. That image stayed with love for 50 years. A dentist

45:10dying behind a machine gun. Fighting to the last breath. Saving men he'd probably never met before

45:16that week. Killing enemies who'd have killed those men if he hadn't stopped them. Getting nothing for it

45:21except a grave and a denied medal recommendation. But now we know the full story. Now we know it took

45:2958 years to get it right. Now we know that Ben Solomon's actions on July 7th, 1944, represented

45:37something the military struggled to understand. A non-combatant who became a combatant. A healer

45:43who became a killer. A man who broke the rules to save lives. And now we know the question that

45:50matters

45:51most. Not what he thought in those final minutes. But what his actions meant. What they still mean.

45:58What they say about duty and sacrifice and the impossible choices men make in war. That question

46:06has an answer. But it's not the answer anyone expected. The answer isn't about heroism. Every soldier

46:15on Saipan that day showed heroism. Heroism was common. Men threw themselves on grenades, charged

46:21machine gun nests, held positions until they died. The Medal of Honor citations from that battle prove it.

46:28O'Brien manning his jeep gun. Baker propped against a tree with eight rounds. Dozens more who never got

46:34recognized at all. The answer isn't about skill. Solomon was skilled with that machine gun. But so were

46:41thousands of other gunners. Men who trained longer, fought more battles, killed more enemies over the

46:47course of the war. Skill alone doesn't explain why his story matters. The answer isn't even about the

46:53numbers. Ninety-eight confirmed kills is remarkable. But other soldiers had higher counts. Fighter pilots,

47:00bomber crews, artillery teams, snipers who spent years hunting targets. The body count alone doesn't

47:07make him special. What makes Ben Solomon's story matter is the choice he made. He was a non-combatant.

47:13Wore a red cross brassard. Protected under the Geneva Convention. Could have evacuated with his patients.

47:20Should have evacuated. That was the regulation. That was the rule. Medical personnel don't fight.

47:27They heal. But his patients couldn't move fast enough. The Japanese were coming too fast.

47:32Someone had to slow them down. Someone had to buy time. The four machine gunners were already dead.

47:39Nobody else was available. So the dentist made a choice. He removed his red cross brassard.

47:46That part matters. He didn't fight as a protected medical officer. He fought as a combatant. Gave up his

47:53protection under international law. Made himself a legitimate target. Did it knowingly. Did it anyway.

48:00Then he picked up that gun and became something the army couldn't categorize. Not a medic. Not an infantry

48:07man. Something in between. A healer who killed to protect the ones he'd healed. A non-combatant who

48:13chose to become a combatant because the situation demanded it. That's why the army struggled with his

48:18medal of honor for 58 years. He broke the rules. The rules exist for good reasons. Medical personnel need

48:26protection. Need to be trusted by both sides. Need to move freely on battlefields to save lives.

48:32Those rules save thousands of lives in every war. But rules sometimes conflict with reality.

48:39Sometimes the choice isn't between following rules and breaking rules. Sometimes the choice is between

48:45abandoning patients and protecting them. Between dying passive or dying active. Between letting 30 men get

48:52killed or killing to save them. Solomon chose. Removed his Broussard. Picked up the gun. Fought. Died.

49:01Got punished for it by being denied recognition for six decades. Because the system couldn't handle

49:07the complexity. Couldn't accept that sometimes the right choice means breaking the rules. The 21st

49:13century military understands that now. Combat medics train with weapons. Learn when they can use them.

49:19When they must use them. The rules evolved because of cases like Solomon's. Because reality forced the

49:26system to admit that black and white rules don't work in gray situations. But Solomon never knew that.

49:32He died thinking he'd done his duty and nothing more. Never knew he'd been recommended for the medal of

49:38honor. Never knew it got denied. Never knew his case would be argued for six decades. Never knew he'd

49:45eventually be recognized. He just fought. Died. Got buried. The 30 men he saved knew though. They went

49:53home. Told their families. Told their children. Said a dentist saved their lives twice. Once with medical

50:00treatment. Once with a machine gun. Said he was the bravest man they ever met. Said he deserved the

50:07medal of honor even if the army disagreed. Those men are gone now. Their children are old. Their grandchildren are

50:14middle-aged. But the story survives. Because USC kept it alive. Because Edmund Love wrote it down.

50:21Because Robert West refused to let it die. Because eventually the system admitted it was wrong.

50:28Ben Solomon was born September 1st 1914. Grew up in Milwaukee. Became an Eagle Scout. Went to dental school

50:36when Jewish students faced quotas at universities. Graduated anyway. Built a practice. Got drafted. Tried to

50:43fight. Got forced to be a dentist. Volunteered to be a surgeon. Died as an infantryman. Got recognized as a

50:51hero 58 years too late. He was 29 years old when he died. Had been in combat for 10 days.

50:59Had been a surgeon

51:00for 10 days. Had been manning that machine gun for 15 hours. Killed 98 enemies. Saved 30 friendlies.

51:08Died alone behind a gun he shouldn't have been using according to regulations he'd violated to do what

51:14was right. That's the story of Captain Benjamin Louis Solomon. The dentist they laughed at. Until he killed

51:2298 Japanese soldiers with a machine gun and saved 30 American lives by sacrificing his own.

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Captain Ben Solomon’s Saipan Banzai Charge: WW2 Dentist, Machine Gun Hero

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