21 January 1915 · USS San Diego · Gulf of California

A Filipino engineman
ran toward the fire.

This is the story of Fireman Second Class Telesforo de la Cruz Trinidad — the first and only sailor of Asian descent to receive the Medal of Honor in peacetime — and the century of quiet history that followed.

The armored cruiser USS San Diego (ACR-6), January 1915

Photograph of a U.S. Navy fire room, c.1918

An immigrant, an engineman, a shipmate.

Trinidad was born on 25 November 1890 in New Washington, Aklan, on the island of Panay — a son of the Philippines who crossed an ocean to serve a flag that was not yet fully his country's or his own. He enlisted through the Navy's Insular Force, created in 1901 to bring 500 Filipino sailors into the fleet, and earned his rating as a Fireman Second Class in the engineering plant of the armored cruiser USS San Diego.

The San Diego (ACR-6) was the flagship of the Pacific Fleet — a rear admiral's flag flew from her mainmast.

Then the boiler exploded.

On 21 January 1915, off La Paz in the Gulf of California, the San Diego was completing a four-hour full-power run when the boilers in her No. 2 fireroom ruptured. Trinidad was blown clear of the compartment. He turned around and went back in. Through the steam he found R. E. Daly, a fellow fireman, injured — and carried him out.

As they passed into the No. 4 fireroom, the boilers of No. 3 let go. The blast burned Trinidad about the face. He passed Daly on to other hands, turned again, and went into No. 3 to help bring out another injured shipmate.

Five sailors were killed and seven injured that day. Two men lived because a 24-year-old fireman from Panay refused to leave them.

The Medal of Honor.

For "extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession," Trinidad was awarded the U.S. Navy Medal of Honor — authorized by Navy General Order No. 142 on 1 April 1915 and presented to him that August. Over one hundred and ten years later, he remains the only person of Asian descent to receive the U.S. Navy Medal of Honor — awarded in peacetime.

Three Filipinos have received the Medal of Honor across all of American history. He is the only one who wore the uniform of the United States Navy.

A century of Filipino service.

Trinidad shipped out in a Navy that barely had a place for him. For some seventy years, Filipino sailors — recruited by the tens of thousands, more than 35,000 between 1952 and 1992 alone — were largely confined to the steward's branch: the galleys and the wardrooms, whatever their talents. Not until 1971 was every rating in the Navy opened to them.

What followed was a generation's quiet ascent — to chief petty officer, to command at sea, to flag rank itself. But through all of it, no United States Navy warship had ever carried a Filipino name.

Until DDG-139.

On 19 May 2022 the Secretary of the Navy announced that DDG-139 — an Arleigh Burke Flight III guided missile destroyer — would be named the future USS Telesforo Trinidad. She is under contract at Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Fabrication is tentatively anticipated to begin in the first quarter of 2027: steel has not yet been cut, and a crew has not yet been formed. The commissioning committee has been formed — and the work of honoring this ship and her namesake is underway.

Learn about the ship

1915 — 1968

He stayed.

The medal did not end his service; it barely interrupted it. Trinidad remained in the United States Navy through two world wars, and when he finally retired in 1945, he had given the fleet more than three decades of his life.

He went home to the Philippines and settled in Imus, Cavite, with his wife, Eufemia. They raised eleven children; two of their sons followed their father into the United States Navy. By his family's account, he was a man of few words about the day that made him famous.

Telesforo de la Cruz Trinidad died on 8 May 1968, aged seventy-seven, and was laid to rest in Imus. For more than half a century, his medal rested in near-silence — until a Secretary of the Navy who had first heard the fireman's story as a young midshipman decided the silence had lasted long enough.

“Since being sworn in as Secretary, I have wanted to honor his heroic actions by naming a ship after him.”

— Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy · 19 May 2022

Voice of Trinidad

Hear the citation. Read on the medal.

The exact words the United States Navy chose to describe what Fireman Second Class Trinidad did on 21 January 1915.

Medal of Honor Citation — read aloud 0:00 / 0:00

“For extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession at the time of the boiler explosion on board the U.S.S. San Diego, 21 January 1915. Trinidad was driven out of fireroom No. 2 by the explosion, but at once returned and picked up R.E. Daly, fireman, second class, whom he saw to be injured, and proceeded to bring him out. While coming into No. 4 fireroom, Trinidad was just in time to catch the explosion in No. 3 fireroom, but without consideration for his own safety, passed Daly on and then assisted in rescuing another injured man from No. 3 fireroom. Trinidad was himself burned about the face by the blast from the explosion in No. 3 fireroom.”

— Official U.S. Navy Medal of Honor Citation, 1915

When a nation names a warship, it makes a choice about which memories it intends to keep.

— The Commissioning Committee

The story continues at the shipyard.

Follow the build, meet the ship, and support the commissioning.

Meet DDG-139 Sponsor the Commissioning

A Filipino enginemanran toward the fire.