page_title: Robert Eugene Bush
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Eugene Bush / Biography
caption_attribution_description: This is a publicity news photograph of President Truman presenting the Medal of Honor to Robert E. Bush just after the end of World War II.
context_page_description: Robert Eugene Bush, at age 18, was the youngest member of the United States Navy in World War II to receive the nation's highest military decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor. He was awarded the medal for heroic actions "above and beyond the call of duty" while serving as hospital corpsman attached to a Marine Corps rifle company on May 2, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa.
context_section_description: Bush was born in Tacoma, Washington to Carl and Estelle Bush. His father worked as a sawmill logger and his mother was a nurse. After his parents divorced when he was four, he was raised by his mother in Raymond, Washington. He worked in a sawmill with some friends and dropped out of school in 1943.
  Bush joined the United States Naval Reserve (United States Navy Reserve) at age 17 on January 5, 1944, as an apprentice seaman, Class V-6, at Navy Recruiting Station, Seattle, Washington. After completing recruit training at the Farragut Naval Training Station, at Farragut, Idaho, he was sent to and graduated from the Naval Hospital Corps Schools in Farragut. He was assigned to the Naval Hospital, Seattle, before completing further training at the Field Medical Service School, Fleet Marine Force Training Center, Camp Pendleton, California. During his training, he was advanced to seaman second class then to hospital apprentice second class. On March 1, he was temporarily advanced to hospital apprentice first class.
  On February 10, 1945, he was assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Afterwards, he was assigned to G Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines during the invasion of Okinawa which began on April 1, 1945. On May 2, he was wounded in action by shrapnel from three enemy hand grenades  while attending to his wounded platoon commander and at the same time, firing the lieutenant's rifle to protect the lieutenant, himself, and rest of the platoon during an enemy attack. He was honorably discharged on July 26, 1945. He then finished high school, and married Wanda Spooner of South Bend, Washington.
  Bush was presented the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman on October 5, 1945, for his heroic actions on May 2, 1945 on Okinawa, during a ceremony on the South Lawn at the White House. In total, 18 hospital corpsmen received the medal of honor for their service with the Marine Corps in wartime including seven corpsmen during World War II.
  He later studied business administration at the University of Washington. He founded the Bayview Lumber Company at South Bend in 1951 and Bayview Redi-Mix at Elma, WA, building both into multimillion-dollar businesses. Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw wrote a chapter about Bush in his book about World War II, The Greatest Generation (1998). As well as his business affairs, Bush was active in championing veterans' causes, and served for two years as President of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society (1971-1973). He attended the inaugurations of every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, excepting that of Lyndon B. Johnson, who didn't invite any Medal of Honor recipient. He is not related to either President Bush.
  Robert and Wanda Bush were the parents of three sons and a daughter. He died from kidney cancer on November 8, 2005, in Olympia, Washington, aged 79. His wife predeceased him in 1999, and a son, Larry, died in 1986. At the time of his death he was survived by three children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. He was buried in Fern Hill Cemetery, Menlo, Washington.
caption: President Truman presenting the Medal of Honor to Robert E. Bush
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