Background
Ruiz was born and raised in Loving, New Mexico and enlisted in the United States Army in the town of Carlsbad, New Mexico upon the outbreak of.
Ruiz was born and raised in Loving, New Mexico and enlisted in the United States Army in the town of Carlsbad, New Mexico upon the outbreak of.
He was assigned to the United States. 27th Infantry Division after completing basic training. During, the conquest of the Japanese island of Okinawa was considered vital for the Allied forces as a step towards an invasion of the Japanese mainland. The invasion (codenamed Operation Iceberg) was the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific war, and involved units of the United States. Tenth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Junior.
These consisted of III Amphibious Corps (1st and 6th Marine Divisions, with 2nd Marine Division as an afloat reserve), and XXIV Corps (7th, 77th, 96th and 27th Infantry Divisions).
On April 28, 1945, PFC Ruiz"s unit was pinned down by machine gun fire coming from a camouflaged Japanese pillbox and was unable to advance to its assigned objective. Ruiz, on his own initiative, charged the pillbox under a hail of machine gun fire.
On his second attempt, he was able to neutralize the pillbox by killing all of its occupants.
Ruiz resided in Visalia, California and actively participated in activities honoring Medal of Honor recipients. Ruiz died on November 20, 2009, of congestive heart failure. The town of Visalia has honored Ruiz by naming the "Alejandro R. Ruiz Senior Park" after him, located at North Burke Street and Buena Vista Street. Among PFC Alejandro R. Ruiz" decorations and medals were the following:.
