Edward Allen "Eddie" Gisburne (June 14, 1892 – August 29, 1955) was a United States Navy officer and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his role in the battle which began the U.S. occupation of Veracruz, Mexico. He earned the medal as an enlisted man for ignoring heavy fire and his own severe injuries to drag a wounded marine to safety. Although he lost his left leg in the fight, he went on to complete two more terms of service with the Navy, one as a radio operator during World War I and another as a 50-year-old commissioned officer in World War II. Early life and career Born on June 14, 1892, in Providence, Rhode Island, Gisburne attended school in Quincy, Massachusetts. He came from a family with a tradition of naval service, with six generations having served in the Navy since the American Civil War. An only child, Gisburne's father died when he was 5, and his mother died months later. He eventually moved in with his paternal grandparents in Washington, D.C., where he lived for the next ten years. In 1910, he graduated from Washington's McKinley Manual Training School. He held a childhood interest in electricity and later wireless telegraphy which led to a career in radio technology. After his graduation, Gisburne worked for an electrical company in Boston for a few months before finding work at the Boston Navy Yard. While there, he and a group of friends decided on a whim to join the Navy; Gisburne enlisted for a four-year term of service on August 30, 1910. He was first stationed as a signaler on the battleship and then on the supply ship . Veracruz and World War I In early 1914, Gisburne, by then an electrician third class, was transferred to the and became the battleship's chief radio operator. On April 21, 1914, in the midst of the ongoing Mexican Revolution, Florida was one of three U.S. Navy ships which landed a combined Navy and Marine Corps force at Veracruz, Mexico, in response to the Tampico Affair. The landings began a three-day battle which ended with U.S. occupation of the city. Accompanying Florida'''s landing party, Gisburne and others made their way to the roof of Veracruz's Terminal Hotel in order to establish a communications station. When the position came under fire, a Marine Corps rifle squad was sent