05/25/2026
On Memorial Day, we suggest you walk a short distance from Ulele’s front doors, along the Tampa Riverwalk to a marker in Water Works Park overlooking the Hillsborough River that honors two Tampa Medal of Honor recipients, including Baldomero López.
López was born in Tampa in 1925, the same year Goody Goody was founded on what was then Grand Central Avenue (Now Kennedy Boulevard).
The son of Spanish immigrants, he attended Hillsborough High School, where he excelled at basketball and participated in the JROTC program. He graduated high school and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in on July 8, 1943, one month after the D-Day landings in Normandy and six weeks shy of his 18th birthday. He served nearly a year before being selected to attend the U.S. Naval Academy.
After graduating in three years and commissioning as a second lieutenant in the Marines, he returned to the states for a time but then volunteered for duty as an infantry officer in Korea in 1950.
On Sept. 15, 1950, López took part in the invasion of the strategic port of Inchon on Korea’s west coast 100 miles south from the 38th parallel. After landing on the beach, photographer Marguerite Higgins captured an image of him leading men over a seawall.
Moments later, he took automatic weapons fire in his chest and shoulder, which caused him to drop a hand gr***de he was preparing to throw into a North Korean bunker. Wounded, he covered the explosion with his body, shielding others from the blast and killing him immediately.
In 1951, López posthumously was awarded the Medal of Honor, the United States of America’s highest military honor, awarded for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. He is buried at Centro Asturiano Memorial Park Cemetery on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Tampa.
Writing about the selfless sacrifice, war reporter Jerry Thorp, said López “died with the courage that makes men great.”
On this day, we ask you to join us in remembering those in our armed forces who put themselves in harm’s way and sacrificed their lives in protection of our country’s freedom.
